Design for a Crucifix with the Virgin Mary, Saint Mary Magdalen, and Saint John

Design for a Crucifix with the Virgin Mary, Saint Mary Magdalen, and Saint John

Polidoro da Caravaggio

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like the studies for an altarpiece exhibited nearby, this drawing dates from the last phase of Polidoro's career, when he was active in Sicily. The haunting depiction of the Crucifixion shows Christ isolated on an elaborate reliquary-like cross rising from the trunk of a tree-an allusion to the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden that bore the forbidden fruit consumed by Adam and Eve, precipitating the fall from grace redeemed through Christ's sacrifice. Isolated in their grief, the mourning figures of the Virgin Mary, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalen occupy the space at the base of the cross. The function of this drawing is unknown; it may be a design for a gonfalone, or processional banner, commissioned by a confraternity dedicated to the Crucifix (in which case the Crucifix in the drawing may allude to an actual object of veneration, perhaps a reliquary of the True Cross). Such lightweight works, painted on canvas, often doubled as altarpieces or devotional images when installed in an oratory or the chapter house of a confraternity.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a Crucifix with the Virgin Mary, Saint Mary Magdalen, and Saint JohnDesign for a Crucifix with the Virgin Mary, Saint Mary Magdalen, and Saint JohnDesign for a Crucifix with the Virgin Mary, Saint Mary Magdalen, and Saint JohnDesign for a Crucifix with the Virgin Mary, Saint Mary Magdalen, and Saint JohnDesign for a Crucifix with the Virgin Mary, Saint Mary Magdalen, and Saint John

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.