Antonello da Messina, 'Christ Crucified', 1475
About the work
Overview
Christ’s body hangs limply on the Cross; the torment of his crucifixion is almost over. He is supported in his final moments by the Virgin Mary and his disciple John the Evangelist. Antonello has composed the picture with a low viewpoint; it is as if we are looking up at a Crucifix placed upon an altar. This association is a reminder that Christ’s death would come to be celebrated by the Christian Church as an act of salvation.
Our picture owes some debt to Netherlandish versions of this subject by Jan van Eyck and other painters, which were usually also painted on a small scale, with Christ’s slender body isolated high above the figures below and in front of a broad landscape background. Antonello has simplified the image – excluding any detail from the biblical narrative – to focus upon Christ’s sacrifice and suffering.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Christ Crucified
- Artist
- Antonello da Messina
- Artist dates
- active 1456; died 1479
- Date made
- 1475
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 41.9 × 25.4 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1884
- Inventory number
- NG1166
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Given or bequeathed by the 2nd Marquess of Bute (who died in 1848) to his 3rd cousin Louisa, wife of the 3rd Marquess of Waterford; purchased from her, Clarke Fund, 1884.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1885National Gallery, Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery: With Short Biographical Notices of the Painters: Foreign Schools, London 1885
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1885London, National Gallery Archive, NG17/4 Annual Reports 1874-1886: Annual Report of the National Gallery for 1884, 1885
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1887F. Kugler, Handbook of Painting: The Italian Schools, eds C.L. Eastlake and A.H. Layard, 5th edn, London 1887
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1888E.T. Cook, A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery Including, by Special Permission, Notes Collected from the Works of Mr. Ruskin, London 1888
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1897G. Gronau, 'Die Quellen der Biographie des Antonello da Messina', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XX, 1897, pp. 347-61
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1901A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901
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1903G.D. Marzo, Di Antonello da Messina e dei suoi congiunti, Palermo 1903
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1904A. D'Amico, 'Antonello da Messina, le sue opere e l'Invenzione della pittura ad olio', Archivio storico messinese, V, 1904, pp. 90-1
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1907U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols, Leipzig 1907
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1907L. Venturi, Le origini della pittura veneziana 1300-1500, Venice 1907
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1909H. Stein, 'Antonello da Messina', Gazette des beaux-arts, I, 1909, pp. 34-51
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1912J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century, ed. T. Borenius, 2nd edn, 3 vols, London 1912
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1914N. Scalia, Introduzione, note e commento alla vita di Antonello del Vasari, Florence 1914
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1914N. Scalia, Antonello da Messina e la pittura in Sicilia, Milan 1914
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1914R. Longhi, 'Piero dei Franceschi e lo sviluppo della pittura veneziana', L'arte, XVII, 1914
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1922G. Glück, 'A Drawing by Antonello da Messina', The Burlington Magazine, XLI, 1922, pp. 270-5
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1933J. Lauts, 'Antonello da Messina', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, VII, 1933, pp. 15-88
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1939S. Bottari, Antonello da Messina, Milan 1939
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1939J. Lauts, 'Antonello da Messina', Pantheon, XXIII, 1939, pp. 181-90
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1940J. Lauts, Antonello da Messina, Vienna 1940
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1949F.M. Godfrey, 'Antonello da Messina', The Connoisseur, CXXIV/514, 1949
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1952G. Vigni, Tutta la pittura di Antonello da Messina, Milan 1952
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1953S. Bottari, Antonello, Milan 1953
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1953Vigni and G. Caradente (eds), Antonello da Messina e la Pittura del '400 in Sicilia: Catalogo della mostra (exh. cat. Palazzo Communale, 30 May - 30 June 1953), Venice 1953
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1954S. Bottari, La pittura del Quattrocento in Sicilia, Messina 1954
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1958B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento: La scuola veneta, Florence 1958
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1958S. Bottari, 'Antonello da Messina', in Enciclopedia Universale dell'Arte, Florence 1958
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1959P. Rotondi, La Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola, Genoa 1959
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1961M. Meiss, 'Highlands and Lowlands. Ban Eyck, the Master of Flemalle, and the Franco-Italian Tradition', Gazette des beaux-arts, LVII, 1961, pp. 273-310
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1964R. Causa, Antonello da Messina, Milan 1964
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1964P. Rostworowski, 'Trois tableaux d'Antonello da Messina', Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, II, 1964, pp. 76-86
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1967L. Sciascia, L'opera completa di Antonello da Messina, Milan 1967
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1970F. Hartt, A History of Italian Renaissance Art, London 1970
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1975M.G. Paolini, 'Antonello da Messina', The Connoisseur, CXC/764, 1975, pp. 126-31
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1975A.W. Robins, 'The Paintings of Antonello da Messina', The Connoisseur, CLXXXVIII/757, 1975, pp. 186-93
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1978E.T. DeWald, Italian Painting, 1200-1600, New York 1978
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1979J.M. Collier, 'The Kansas City Petrus Christus', Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Bulletin, V/5, 1979, pp. 23-37
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1980G. Previtali, 'Da Antonello da Messina a Jacopo di Antonello, I: La data del "Christo benedicente" della National Gallery di Londra', Prospettiva, XX, 1980, pp. 27-34
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1981A. Marabottini and F.S. Santoro, Antonello da Messina, (exh. cat. Museo Regionale, 22 October 1981 - 31 January 1982), Rome 1981
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1982P.H. Jolly, Jan van Eyck and St. Jerome: A Study of Eyckian Influence on Colantonio and Antonello Da Messina in Quattrocento Naples, London 1982
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1984L.C. Vegas, Italie et Flandres dans la peinture du XVe siècle, Milan 1984
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1985E. Battisti and R. Pacciani, Antonello: Il teatro sacro, gli spazi, la donna, Palermo 1985
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
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1986F. Sricchia Santoro, Antonello e l'Europa, Milan 1986
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1990E. Markgraf, Antonello und die Niederlande, Frankfurt 1990
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1991J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
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1993L. Arbace, Antonello da Messina: Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1993
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1994A. Thomas, An Illustrated Dictionary of Narrative Painting, London 1994
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1995P. Humfrey, Painting in Renaissance Venice, New Haven 1995
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1996J. Turenr (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols, New York 1996
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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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