Crucifixion
- Subject
- Late Gothic retable depicting scenes from the lives of Mary and Jesus
- Author, school, workshop
- Wit Stwosz (ca. 1448-1533)
- Contributor
- -
- Style
- Late Gothic
- Date
- 1477-1489
- Type
- Altarpiece in the form of a pentaptych
- Material and technique
- Wood/carving, gilding, polychrome
- Size
- 2,5 × 2,3 m
- Signatures and inscriptions
- -
- Identity number
- -
- Department
- -
- Links/analogies
- -
- Owner
- Saint Mary's Basilica in Krakow
- Copyright
- Saint Mary's Basilica in Krakow
- Location
- Saint Mary's altar (by Wit Stwosz) in the presbytery
- Description
- The drama of the successive scenes of Christ's Passion finds an admirable parallel in the St. Mary's altarpiece in the drama of its forms and manner of artistic expression. Stwosz's temperament was most fully manifested in the 'anatomy of the garments' - in-depth and seemingly obsessive studies of swirling matter. The parts of the body visible from beneath the fabrics are equally expressive - dry, marked with rods of veins and indented with furrowed sinews. The realism in the treatment of the human body sometimes borders on naturalism and serves to heighten the emotional expression of the figures. When looking at this splendid Crucifixion, it is worth remembering that its author lived in a watershed era. Born during the heyday of the Renaissance, he outlived Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael Santi by almost twenty years. Despite this, it is difficult to see traces of the new style in his works. Death lurks in the predatory twisted figures, in the expressive dry folds carved by the master. This is how the Middle Ages die!
