Triptych: The Crucifixion
around 1440 | Rogier van der Weyden
The scene presented today as the wing of an altarpiece probably originates from a single panel on which the frame was only painted. At an early stage the work was sawn into three pieces so that the depictions of Mary Magdalene and St. Veronica became side-wings of a triptych. The great artistic innovation of van der Weyden may therefore have carried even greater weight in the original version: for the first time he combines all the participants – the crucifixion group, saints and benefactors – in front of a unified landscape in which the idealised view of Jerusalem appears on the horizon.
The scene presented today as the wing of an altarpiece probably originates from a single panel on which the frame was only painted. At an early stage the work was sawn into three pieces so that the depictions of Mary Magdalene and St. Veronica became side-wings of a triptych. The great artistic innovation of van der Weyden may therefore have carried even greater weight in the original version: for the first time he combines all the participants – the crucifixion group, saints and benefactors – in front of a unified landscape in which the idealised view of Jerusalem appears on the horizon.
Artist:
Rogier van der Weyden (1399 oder 1400 Tournai - 1464 Brüssel) DNB
Time:
around 1440
Object Name
Painting
Culture
Early Netherlandish
Material/technology:
oak wood
Dimensions:
Mitteltafel: middle panel: 96 x 69 cm
wing framed: 101 x 35 cm
wings overall: 96 x 27 cm
Copyright
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie
Invs.
Gemäldegalerie, 901
Provenance
Coll. Leopold Wilhelm