The Crucifixion, ca. 1420

About the Work

The main panel of the winged altarpiece features the Crucifixion. At the centre of the crowded scene is the crucifix, clasped by Mary Magdalene, before it a group with the unconscious Virgin and St Veronica. The latter presents the sudarium to the onlookers kneeling in the right foreground. Their pious devotion supplies the retable viewer with “instructions for use”. Split into two in the nineteenth century, the wings are not extant in their entirety. The inner sides show further scenes from the Passion; of the paintings on the outer sides, only the Visitation has survived.