Crucifixion

Barnaba da Modena painted this Crucifixion around 1375, rendering the central subject of Christian art in his characteristic style that preserved the intensity of Byzantine devotional painting for Genoese and Piedmontese patrons. Barnaba worked primarily in Genoa and its orbit, where strong commercial ties to the Eastern Mediterranean sustained a taste for Byzantine-influenced sacred art well into the late Trecento. This Crucifixion in the Indianapolis Museum of Art demonstrates the persistence of Italo-Byzantine modes alongside the naturalistic revolution occurring in Florence and Siena.

Painted in tempera and gold on panel, the Crucifixion features the elongated, pathos-laden figure of Christ characteristic of Barnaba's Byzantinizing style, with mourning figures arranged in restrained symmetry. The technique combines lavish gold ground with somber, deeply saturated colors and the fine linear detail of the Byzantine-influenced Ligurian tradition.