Panel

Unknown

second half 15th century · Carved, stamped and punched cypress with ink drawing · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This panel depicting the Crucifixion was originally the top of a casket or box made in northern Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century. The composition appears to have been copied from a lost wall painting by Altichiero (active ca. 1369–ca. 1384) or his school in Padua or Verona. It is one of very few examples where a large religious composition has been copied onto the lid of a casket. The technique of pen on wood with a cut-away, punched background was continued well into the sixteenth century on a variety of boxes and cassoni that have been attributed to workshops in the Adige Valley (notable examples in the Museo d'Arte Antica, Milan, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London).

Artist

Unknown

Date

second half 15th century

Medium

Carved, stamped and punched cypress with ink drawing

Culture

Northern Italian

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Sir John Pope-Hennessy, 1980