拍品专文
Best known for his spectacular Paradise frescoes in the Baptistry of the Padua Duomo, commissioned by noblewoman Fina Buzzaccarini in the 1370s, the Florence-born Giusto de’ Menabuoi was a prominent painter active in Padua in the second half of the 14th century, who may have been a pupil of Giotto.
The present work likely dates to his Lombard sojourn during the 1360s. Although far in size from the frescoes he would paint in Padua the following decade, the panel demonstrates Giusto de’ Menabuoi’s mastery in invoking emotion on any scale. The size of this Crucifixion indicates that it was probably destined for private devotion, to be hung in a home, a private chapel, or even kept inside a wardrobe or piece of furniture, to be taken out and handled by its owner for contemplative meditation on the Passion of Christ. On the reverse, an unknown later artist has painted an intriguing scene with Saint Anthony Abbott, precursor of Christian monasticism, standing in the desert wearing his distinctive hermit robe (fig. 1).
We are grateful to Andrea De Marchi for endorsing the attribution to Giusto de' Menabuoi on the basis of firsthand inspection.