Crucifix

1230/40

Master of the Bigallo Crucifix
Italian, active about 1225-65

In late-medieval Italian churches, a monumental crucifix was often attached to the top of a major altarpiece or placed above the rood screen that separated the public nave from the church sanctuary. In either location, it was a focal point of public worship. The painter of this outstanding example was a leading Florentine artist of the middle of the 13th century, named after another painted crucifix in the Museo del Bigallo, Florence. Although his style retains the traditional linear patterning associated with Byzantine models, he employed a new, more natural system of lighting. Also traditional are the smaller figures amplifying the Passion narrative—the Virgin and John the Evangelist flanking the cross, Christ as redeemer above it, and the crowing rooster at its foot referring to Saint Peter’s denial of Christ.

Status: On View, Gallery 236
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Master of the Bigallo Crucifix
Title: Crucifix
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1255–1265
Medium: Tempera on panel
Inscriptions: __ __ Inscribed: IC..XC. (above head of Christ in white pigment)
Dimensions: 191 × 127.2 cm (75 1/4 × 50 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: A. A. Munger Collection
Reference Number: 1936.120
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/22527/manifest.json

“Fifteen New Acquisitions at Chicago,” The Art News 35, 13 (1936), pp. 9, 25, ill. p. 8.
“Thirteenth Century Crucifix for Chicago,” The Art Digest 11, 7 (1937) p. 12 (ill.).
E. Sandberg-Vavalà, “A Crucifix at Chicago,” The Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin 33 (1939), pp. 34-40, figs. 1, 3, 5, detail on cover.
R.Oertel, : Italienische Malerei des Mittelalters bis zum Trecento,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 9 (1940), p. 121.
“The Face of Christ: A Portfolio of His Image Through the Ages,” Fortune 33 (1946), p. 135 (color ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1948, p. 25.
E. B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting: An Illustrated Index (Florence, 1949), pp. 12, 181, 185, no. 467 (ill.).
Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 37, (Leipzig, 1950), p. 48.
F.A. Sweet, “La Pittura italiana all’Art Institute di Chicago,” Le vie del mundo: Rivista mensile del Touring Club Italiano 15 (1953), pp.689–90 (ill).
C. L. Ragghianti, Pittura del dugento a Firenze (Florence, 1955), p. 12, fig. 28.
E. B. Garrison, Studies in the History of Medieval Italian Painting, vol. 2, nos. 3-4 (Florence, 1956), “Addenda ad Indicem IV,” p.210.
Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs, et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays, 2d ed., vol. 5, 1960, p. 711.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 299, ill. p. 35.
Hans Huth, “Italienische Kunstwerke im Art Institute von Chicago, USA,” in Miscellanea Bibliothecae hertzianae (Munich, 1961), p. 516
E. B. Garrison, Studies in the History of Medieval Italian Painting, vol. 2, nos. 3–4 (Florence, 1962), “Addenda ad Indicem VI,” p.384.
D. Campini, Giunta Pisano Capitini e le croci dipinte romaniche (Milan, 1966), pp. 44, 204.
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago, (London 1970), p. 20, ill. p. 21.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North America Public Collections (Cambridge, Mass, 1972), pp. 125, 287.
Angelo Tartuferi, “Pittura fiorentina del duecento” in La Pittura in Italia, vol. 1, il duecento e il trecento (Milan, 1986), p. 269.
L.C. Marques, La Peinture du duecento en Italie centrale (Paris, 1987), pp. 74, 242 n. 128.
Angelo Tartuferi “La pittura a Firenze nel duecento, (Florence, 1990), pp. 14, 21 n. 38, 22 n. 44, 71, fig. 26.
Christopher Lloyd, Italian Paintings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1993), pp. 146-51.
Miklós Boskovits, The Origins of Florentine Painting, 1100-1270. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, section 1, volume 1 (Florence, 1993), pp. 93, 95, 291, 327-331, pls. XX-XX2.
Carl Brandon Strehlke, Review of Italian Paintings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Collection in Burlington Magazine 136 (1994) p. 625.
Angelo Tartuferi, “Bigallo Master” in The Dictionary of Art, vol. 20 (London, 1996), pp. 630-31.
Frank Zuccari, “Conservation of Italian Paintings in Chicago” in Early Italian Paintings: Approaches to Conservation. Proceedings of a Symposium at the Yale University Art Gallery, April 2002, ed. by Patricia Sherwin Garland (New Haven and London, 2003), p. 253, fig. 18.3.
Angelo Tartuferi, Il Maestro del Bigallo e la pittura della prima metà del Duecento agli Uffizi (Florence, 2007), pp. 36-37, 71, fig. 19.

Art Institute of Chicago, Recent Accessions, 1936-37, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpiece of the Month, 1946, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces of Religious Art, 1954, pp. 12-13, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago New Light on Old Masters: Early Italian Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, May 29 - July 31, 1993, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Devotion and Splendor: Medieval Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” September 25, 2004–January 2, 2005, no cat.

Johann Nepomuk, Count Wilczek (died 1922), Burg Kreuzenstein, near Vienna [according to a letter from E. Silberman Galleries to Robert B. Harshe of May 13, 1936, in curatorial file]. E. and A. Silberman, Vienna and New York, by 1936; sold to the Art Institute, 1936.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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