3. Italian Painting (13-18th c.)

This croce dipinta or painted cross is one of the rarities of the Christian Museum. Between the 12th and 15th centuries, many similar crosses decorated Italian church sanctuaries, hung above the main altar or placed on the choir screen or on the cross beam. These cross-shaped panels often reached 4 or 5 meters in height. The early ones depicted the open-eyed, living Savior victorious over death; then, in the course of the 13th century, the representation changed to the dead Christ under the impact of Franciscan theology that emphasized Jesus’ human nature and physical sufferings. This cross follows the latter type. The dead body bends into an S-shape under its own weight; the head falls helplessly to one side. The silver letters have almost completely worn away in the Gothic inscription of the upper end of the cross, which reads: „IESVS NACARENVS REX IVDEORVM” – Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. The terminals of the horizontal beam of the cross are modern additions. Originally, these fields depicted the busts of the Virgin and of Saint John the Evangelist. The cross was purchased in 1967 from the Hungarian art market.