The Crucifixion

The artist Gerard Horenbout structured this illumination of the Crucifixion to complement visually and thematically the miniature of the Assumption of the Virgin on the facing page. The narrative of the Crucifixion unfolds in a dramatic landscape, with the main image a view of the hilltop that serves as the Crucifixion's setting. A procession of soldiers and Roman officials leaving the hilltop fills much of the page and continues into the border, where the city of Jerusalem can be seen in the distance on the far right. The subsequent scene of the Lamentation appears at the right, followed by the Entombment enclosed in the space beneath the text panel.

The illuminator evoked the scene's religious significance principally through the use of dramatic lighting. The brilliant colors of the sun at the upper left and on the far right will soon be extinguished by the approaching mass of dark clouds, reminding the viewer of Saint Matthew's Gospel, which reports an eclipse of the sun at the time of Jesus' death.