The Crucifixion
Ca. 1480. Oil on baltic oak planks.Room 058
A long loincloth whose ends app ear to flutter in the wind in a very unnatural manner covers the crucified Christ’s nakedness. Nor are the two blue angels in flight on either side depicted naturalistically. Lower down, kneeling and embracing the cross, Mary is held up by Saint John, who is barefooted and dressed in a red tunic from whose belt hang the pen case and inkwell alluding to his status of evangelist. On the right the three holy women, Mary Magdalene and the Virgin’s step sisters Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome, complete a traditional scene of Christ on the cross according to the gospel accounts: ‘And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him: Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedees children’. The rich clothing of the woman kneeling in the foreground, who is usually identified as Mary Magdalene, is particularly eye-catching. Her dress with brocade, fur lining and sheer sleeves, together with the veil and belt, shows her to be an elegant woman of certain status. All the figures’ faces are tear-stained. The background consists of a row of hills and the city of Jerusalem with bulbous domes and large towers. Several people are riding and walking along it; they have presumably witnessed the crucifixion and are returning to the city.
As was recognised from the outset, the panel is an amalgam of motifs borrowed from the Triptych of the Crucifixion (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, inv. 901) and elements taken from other paintings produced by the circle of Rogier and his workshop. The crucified Christ, Saint John and Mary, together with the angels, are direct copies of the same figures in the central panel of the Vienna altarpiece.
By the time the Master of the Saint Catherine Legend painted this work Rogier van der Weyden had died, as the dendrochronological analysis confirms. It is closely modelled on the painting in the Vienna museum – whose early provenance is unknown – to which he must have had direct access; another possibility is that he followed patterns or sketches with colour annotations rather like ricordi. Besides using Rogieresque motifs, the painter included others of his own invention, especially the figure kneeling in the foreground, which he also used in his Cologne work, documented since 1484 – a likely approximate date of execution for the Prado work. Indeed, it is in this figure’s face that the individual characteristics of this master’s creations are particularly apparent.
Pérez Preciado, José Juan, Fifteenth-century netherlandish painting at the Museo Nacional del Prado. Catalogue raisonné, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2024, p.226-231 nº.25
