The Crucifixion

This monumental panel, along with that of Saint Christopher and a Donor also owned by the museum, probably once decorated a chapel. Both are from a large window in which the Crucifixion was in the center and the Saint Christopher at the right. The third panel, which would have been on the left, is lost. Here, the crucified Christ is flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John, two chalice-bearing angels collect blood from the upper wounds, and another chalice is at the foot of the cross above the skull of Adam. The figures are set against a deep panoramic landscape within an elaborate high Gothic niche with a donor’s coat of arms at the base and with shield-bearing and musician angels on the pinnacles above. The armorial of the shield comprises two quarters with three black wolf heads on a white field (ground), two quarters with a black cross moline (arms of equal length with forked ends) set between three gold scallops on a white field, and a center escutcheon with a gold fleur-de-lis on a blue field.