Crucifixion Diptych

Rogier van der Weyden's Crucifixion Diptych, painted around 1460 and now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, presents the Crucifixion in a stark, emotionally concentrated format. The diptych shows the crucified Christ on one panel and the mourning Virgin and Saint John on the other. Rogier's genius for compressing maximum emotional impact into minimal compositional means is fully evident in this late work, where the plain backgrounds focus all attention on the figures' grief.

Rogier achieves powerful emotional impact through radical simplification, with the figures isolated against plain backgrounds and the focus entirely on expressive gesture, flowing drapery, and the intense grief of the mourners.