This little “Crucifixion” – a picture for private devotion – is the proof of the maturity and greatness soon reached by the young painter. In the foreground Christ on the cross stands out between the sorrowful figures of the Virgin e saint John the Evangelist, while in the background it is possible to observe a wide hilly landscape populated by men and animals, crossed by a river and some sinuous paths. In the sky, above the cross, there is a multitude a host of angels in flight.
In the composition the features coming from his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna are clearly evident: the incisiveness of the line that defines the figures, their monumentality, and the landscape. On the other side, the space setting comes from Giovanni, with the dramatic representation of Christ's sacrifice in the foreground; a shocking event, but part of the daily life of people portrayed behind the drama scene.