Raphael, 'The Mond Crucifixion', about 1502-3

The Mond Crucifixion

Raphael

Room 11

About the work

Overview

One of Raphael’s earliest works, this altarpiece was commissioned by the wool merchant and banker Domenico Gavari for his burial chapel dedicated to Saint Jerome in the church of S. Domenico in Città di Castello, Umbria.

Christ’s body hangs from the Cross. Two angels balance on delicate slivers of cloud on either side, catching the blood that flows from his wounds in golden chalices reminiscent of those in which wine would be served during Mass at the altar below.

The sun and moon are both visible in the sky, marking the eclipse that coincided with Christ’s death. Saint Jerome and Mary Magdalene are at the foot of the Cross, gazing up at Christ’s body with reverence and pity. The Virgin, dressed in purplish black to denote mourning, stands to the left of the Cross with John the Evangelist to the right. They both look towards the viewer and wring their hands in grief.

In-depth

This altarpiece, one of Raphael’s earliest works, is known as the ‘Mond Crucifixion’ after Dr Ludwig Mond (1839–1909) who bequeathed it to the National Gallery in 1924. It was commissioned by the wool merchant and banker Domenico Gavari for his burial chapel in the church of S. Domenico in Città di Castello, Umbria.

Raphael produced his earliest documented works in Umbria – three altarpieces and a banner for a confraternity – it is likely he was living in Perugia at the time. This is the second of the altarpieces he painted. The Latin inscription on the stone frame, which is still in the church, translates as ‘Domenico di Tommaso Gavari had this work made 1503’. Gavari was a close friend of Andrea Baronci, for whom Raphael painted the Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Altarpiece for the church of S. Agostino, also in Città di Castello. Raphael probably received the commission through this connection. When Baronci’s widow made Gavari her heir in 1512, her will was witnessed in front of Raphael’s ‘altar of the Crucifix’.

Christ’s body hangs from the Cross, which is surmounted with the inscription ‘I.N.R.I.’, which stands for Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum (‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’). Two angels with scrolling ribbons at their waists balance on delicate slivers of cloud on either side of Christ. They catch the blood flowing from his wounds in golden chalices reminiscent of those in which wine would be served during Mass at the altar below. The promise of resurrection offered through the Eucharist was an appropriate subject for a funerary chapel where Mass would have been said for Gavari’s soul. The inclusion of the chalices is also fitting as Gavari left money in his early wills to furnish every chapel he endowed with new chalices.

The Cross, on the brown foreground, is set against a view of the Umbrian landscape with Città di Castello in the distance. The sun and moon are both visible in the sky, marking the eclipse that coincided with Christ’s death. Raphael used silver leaf for the moon and gold leaf for the sun. Saint Jerome and Mary Magdalene are at the foot of the Cross. gazing up at Christ’s body with reverence and pity, providing an example for the worshippers at the altar. A drawing that seems to be a study for the figure of Mary Magdalene is now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The Virgin Mary, dressed in purplish black to denote mourning, stands to the left of the Cross and John the Evangelist stands to the right. They both look towards the viewer and wring their hands in grief.

Saint Jerome was not present at the Crucifixion but is included in this scene because the chapel was dedicated to him. He gestures to the Cross and holds the stone with which he beat his breast while living as a hermit in the wilderness. The miracles that happened after Christ’s death were painted in scenes of the predella (the lower painted panel displayed beneath the main panel of the altarpiece). Two predella panels survive in the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, and the Museu Nacional de Arte Antigua, Lisbon. Originally there was probably at least one additional panel. Gavari himself may have chosen to dedicate the altar to Saint Jerome as he also named his first-born son Girolamo (Jerome in Italian).

The altarpiece is strongly influenced by Perugino, the leading artist in central Italy at the time, with whom Raphael developed a close artistic relationship while living in Perugia. The overall design is based on several versions of the crucified Christ in a landscape painted by Perugino in the late 1480s and 1490s, and is especially similar to his altarpiece of the Crucifixion for the convent of S. Francesco al Monte in Perugia, commissioned 1502 and completed 1506. In that painting angels with fluttering ribbons hold chalices to catch the blood from Christ’s wounds, the Virgin and the Evangelist are almost identical to Raphael’s and Mary Magdalene is in the same pose in reverse on the other side of the Cross. It’s likely that Raphael saw Perugino’s works in his workshop in Perugia before they were unveiled. As well as adopting the sweet, small-featured oval faces and stylised hand gestures of Perugino’s figures, Raphael took the principles of symmetry, harmony and clarity of composition from Perugino’s works. However, Raphael adapted these, giving them greater softness and sophistication. Here, however, it is not entirely clear who copied whose work.

In Raphael’s early works he usually based his compositions on a simple geometric grid, which he incised on the panel to help him transfer his drawing, as we can see in the Ansidei Madonna. No grid is visible in the Mond Crucifixion, although the strong symmetry and geometrical structure of the picture suggest that Raphael may have used a similar method initially to set out his composition. He used a ruler and compass to incise the outline of the Crucifix, and compasses to incise the sun and moon. The way he left unpainted spaces for the figures and made no revisions or changes while painting suggests that he was working from a carefully prepared design in a detailed drawing. During this period Raphael frequently used dark hatched brushstrokes to reinforce areas of shadow – a technique derived from Perugino – which is particularly noticeable here in the draperies. Raphael also used his hands and fingers to blot and model the wet surface paint. His fingerprints and palm prints are visible in the shadows of the heads, especially in Christ’s hair, face and beard.

Raphael scratched through the brown paint at the foot of the Cross to a layer of silver leaf beneath to sign the painting: RAPHAEL / VRBIN / AS / .P.[INXIT] (‘Raphael of Urbino painted this’). Vasari famously commented that if Raphael had not signed the painting, no one would have believed that he and not Perugino had painted it.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary, Saints and Angels (The Mond Crucifixion)
Artist: Raphael
Artist dates: 1483 - 1520
Date made: about 1502-3
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 283.3 × 167.3 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Inscribed
Acquisition credit: Mond Bequest, 1924
Inventory number: NG3943
Location: Room 11
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 20th-century Replica Frame

Provenance

Gavari altar in S. Domenico, Città di Castello. Sold from the church in 1818 to Cardinal Fesch. He kept it first in Paris but brought it to Rome in 1823. No. 479–500 in the fourth part of the Fesch sale, Rome, 1845, bought by the Principe di Canino. In 1847 Lord Ward (later Earl of Dudley) bought from the Principe di Canino all the otherwise unsold Fesch pictures. Lent by Lord Ward to Manchester, 1857 (159 in the provisional catalogue, 123 in the definitive catalogue), R.A., 1871 (307) and 1892 (151). Dudley sale, 25th June, 1892 (81) where bought Richter for Ludwig Mond. Mond Bequest, 1924.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1987; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2022

The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Raphael

The National Gallery (London)

9 April 2022 - 31 July 2022

Bibliography

1839

J.D. Passavant, Rafael von Urbino und sein Vater Giovanni Santi, 3 vols, Leipzig 1839
1845

George, Galerie de feu S.E. le Cardinal Fesch, ancien archevêque de Lyon, primat des Gaules, etc., etc., ou catalogue raisonné des tableaux de cette galerie, accompagné de notices historiques et analytiques, Rome, 17 March 1845 - 18 March 1845
1878

G. Vasari, Le vite de'più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori: Con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi, ed. G. Milanesi, 8 vols, Florence 1878
1881

E. Müntz, Raphaël: Sa vie, son oeuvre, et son temps, Paris 1881
1882

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, Raphael: His Life and Works, 2 vols, London 1882
1883

A. Rossi (ed.), Giornale di erudizione artistica, Perugia 1883
1897

G. Magherini-Graziani, L'arte a città di Castello, Città di Castello 1897
1910

J.P. Richter, The Mond Collection: An Appreciation, London 1910
1913

O. Fischel, Raphaels Zeichnungen, Berlin 1913
1923

A. Rosenberg, Raffael, des Meisters Gemälde, in 274 Abbildungen, ed. G. Gronau, Berlin 1923
1924

R. Fry, 'The Mond Pictures in the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XLIV/254, 1924, pp. 234-46
1927

G. Magherini-Graziani and E. Giovagnoli, La prima Giovinezza di Raffaello, Città di Castello 1927
1948

O. Fischel, Raphael, trans. B. Rackham, London 1948
1956

K.T. Parker, Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum, vol. 2, Italian Schools, Oxford 1956
1958

W. Schöne, Raphael, Berlin 1958
1962

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools (excluding the Venetian), London 1962
1962

E. Camesasca (ed.), Tutta la pittura de Raffaello, 2nd edn, Milan 1962
1963

R. Wittkower, 'The Young Raphael', Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin, XX, 1963, pp. 150-68
1965

C. Gilbert, 'A Miracle by Raphael', North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin, VI, 1965, pp. 2-35
1971

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1975

C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
1977

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1979

S.F. Pagden, 'A Re-Examination of the "Raphael" Drawing in the National Gallery of Canada', Annual Bulletin of the National Gallery of Canada, III, 1979, pp. 57-66
1982

P. de Vecchi, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Raphael, Paris 1982
1983

J.-P. Cuzin, Raphaël: Vie et oeuvre, Fribourg 1983
1983

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1983

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1983

D. Thompson, Raphael: The Life and Legacy, London 1983
1983

F.F. Mancini, 'Raffaello e Francesco Tifernate: Un documento e alcune precisazioni', Antichità viva, XXII, 1983, pp. 27-34
1983

A. Marabottini, Raffaello giovane e Città di Castello (exh. cat. Pinacoteca Comunale, 1983), Città di Castello 1983
1985

G.B. Pezzini, S. Massari and S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, Raphael invenit: Stampe da Raffaello nelle collezioni dell'Istituto nazionale per la grafica catalogo, Rome 1985
1986

K. Oberhuber, 'Raphael and Pintoricchio', Studies in the History of Art, XVII, 1986, pp. 155-72
1986

P. Vecchi, 'The Coronation of the Virgin in the Vatican Pinacoteca and Raphael's Activity Between 1502 and 1504', Studies in the History of Art, XVII, 1986, pp. 73-82
1987

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
1987

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1988

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1988

J. Stumpel, 'On Grounds and Backgrounds: Some Remarks about Composition in Renaissance Painting', Simiolus, XVIII/4, 1988, pp. 219-43
1989

S.F. Pagden and M.A. Zancan, Raffaello: Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1989
1990

J. Plesters, 'Technical Aspects of some Paintings by Raphael in the National Gallery', in J. Shearman and M.B. Hall (eds), The Princeton Raphael Symposium: Science in the Service of Art History, Princeton 1990, pp. 15-37
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1991

M.B. Hall, Colour and Meaning: Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting, Cambridge 1991
1991

B. Santi, Raffaello, Florence 1991
1991

P. Zampetti, Pittura nelle Marche, Florence 1991
1995

P. de Vecchi, Raffaello: La mimesi, l'armonia e l'invenzione, Florence 1995
1996

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1997

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1997

J. Traeger, Renaissance und Religion: Die Kunst des Glaubens im Zeitalter Raphaels, Munich 1997
1998

S. Buck and P. Hohenstatt, Raffaello Santi, Known as Raphael, 1483-1520, Cologne 1998
1998

L.F. Jacobs, Early Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces, 1380-1550: Medieval Tastes and Mass Marketing, Cambridge 1998
1999

R. Freiherr Hiller von Gaertringen, Raffaels Lernerfahrungen in der Werkstatt Peruginos: Kartonverwendung und Motivübernahme im Wandel, Munich 1999
1999

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1999

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2000

G. Finaldi, The Image of Christ, London 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

J. Meyer zur Capellen, Raphael: A Critical Catalogue of His Paintings, vol. 1, Beginnings in Umbria and Florence, ca. 1500-1508, Landshut 2001
2002

T. Henry, 'Raphael's Altar-Piece Patrons in Città di Castello', The Burlington Magazine, CXLIV, 2002, pp. 270-4
2003

J. Shearman, Raphael in Early Modern Sources (1483-1602), New Haven 2003
2003

D. Wardleworth, 'The "Friendly" Battle for the Mond Bequest', British Art Journal, IV/3, 2003, pp. 87-93
2004

A. Roy, M. Spring and C. Plazzotta, 'Raphael's Early Work in the National Gallery: Paintings before Rome', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XXV, 2004, pp. 4-35
2004

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2006

T. Henry and F.F. Mancini, Gli esordi di Raffaello: Tra Urbino, Città di Castello e Perugia, (exh. cat. Pinacoteca Communale (Città di Castello), Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera, 24 March - 11 June 2006), Città di Castello 2006
2006

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2007

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2007

R. Billinge, 'Recent Study of Raphael's Early Paintings in the National Gallery, London, with Infrared Reflectography', in A. Roy and M. Spring (eds), Raphael's Painting Technique: Working Practices before Rome: Proceedings of the Eu-ARTECH Workshop, Florence 2007, pp. 67-75
2022

Plazzotta, Carol, and Tom Henry, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 4, Raphael, London 2022

Frame

This is a reproduction frame, based on a sixteenth-century Italian frame which was previously on Veronese’s The Dream of Saint Helena.

On the back edge is a twisted ribbon. The carved frieze, composed of scrolling foliage, flowers and tendrils, is set against a punch-tooled background, and has a winged cherub centred at the top. Set in the frieze at the bottom of the frame is a cartouche detailing the inventory number, date of the bequest and artist’s name (‘3943 / MOND BEQUEST, 1924 / RAPHAEL’).

On either side of the frieze, the frame is ornamented with a bead-and-reel motif on the inner edge, and imbricated (overlapping) laurel leaves on the outer edge. The reverse moulding is adorned with fruits and leaves, culminating in an acanthus leaf at the top and corners. The sight edge features a lamb’s-tongue motif.

Raphael’s The Mond Crucifixion was commissioned by Domenico Gavari for his burial chapel in the church of S. Domenico, Città di Castello. It was integrated into the chapel’s architecture within a stone frame, which still exists in its original setting.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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