Lot 1011 Dα

This crucifixion was painted in Antwerp around 1550 and would have originally formed the central panel of a triptych. It follows a well-known pattern for depicting this scene established in the Middle Ages: Christ on the cross is shown in the centre, flanked by the good thief on his right and the bad thief on his left. Beneath the cross, we see a group of Christ's mourning followers, including Saint John and the figure of Mary sunken under the weight of her grief. Two figures of soldiers frame the scene on the right, and a panoramic landscape dominated by a large city occupies the background.
Antwerp was one of the principle centres for the production of this kind of altarpiece in the early 16th century. The manufacturing process in workshops such as that of Joos van Cleve was both efficient and versatile: Central panels such as this one could be fitted with wings depicting additional scenes from the passion like the deposition of Christ, or with portraits of the donors. The present work uses a combination of traditional 15th century pictorial formulas, such that used for the figure of Saint John, but also inventions like the depiction of the soldier turning away, which can be found in another of Joos van Cleve's altarpieces kept in the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo (inv. no. P.1976-0003).