Crucifixion

This artwork was the inferior part (predella) of a dismantled polyptych, probably placed in the private chapel of the celebrated commander Gattamelata in the Basilica del Santo in Padua, signed in 1460 by Jacopo Bellini and his sons, Gentile and Giovanni. In recent times It has been conjectured that it comes from Venice, probably commissioned around 1450 by the important Benedictine convent of San Zaccaria.

The “Crucifixion” is set in a landscape. The traditionally arranged scene shows the crucifix in the centre; the low horizon isolates the crucified Christ against the sky. On Christ's right Mary is fainting between the pious women; next to them the knelt soldier saint Longino, still keeps in his hands the lance with which he wounded Christ's body to proof his death: the extremity is dirty of blood. In the background there is a rank of soldiers.

The painting shows how Jacopo, in the mature phase, radically updated his late-Gothic figurative style, moving towards Renaissance, thus providing a solid basis for the future painting of his talented sons.