Cross No. 434 – Sala delle Maestà, Galleria degli Uffizi

Uffizi Gallery

This full-figure Christ, crucified with four nails and depicted according to the iconography of the Christus Patiens, which became widespread in Italy starting in the thirteenth century, is flanked by eight scenes from the Passion. The terminals, which presumably had the traditional images of the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist and other symbols, are missing. The earliest information about the cross dates from the 1881 inventory of paintings in the storage rooms of the Regia Galleria degli Uffizi (no. 40 – I category); a few years later it was displayed in the first corridor of the Galleria, as shown in Rigoni’s 1888 catalogue. In the inventory dated 1890, it is listed with the number 434, hence its current title. The identity of the creator of the Crucifix is still unknown, although many attributions have been suggested over the past several decades.

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