PROVENANCE: Palazzo Davanzati, Florence; Palazzo Davanzati and Villa Pia Collections sale, American Art Association, Plaza Hotel, New York, Nov. 21-27, 1916, lot 1039 (illus.); Richard Mortimer, Tuxedo Park, New Jersey; Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1956; BJU, 1956.

From the little-known life of Vannuccio, only one signed painting exists, a double-sided panel of The Virgin and Child with Saints and a Crucifixion with Saints (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie). His style is largely derived from the most important Sienese artist of the second quarter of the century, Simone Martini, whose paintings display a particular concern for the emotional drama of his figures, evidenced by dramatic gestures and contorted facial anguish.

Virtually every Italian duomo (cathedral) has a crucifix that hangs above the altar. Sometimes these crucifixes are sculpted in wood, but the most popular form, as evidenced by this work, is painted. This Crucifix is a particularly important example of the artist’s style and is Vannuccio’s best-preserved crucifix. Closely related to Martini’s Crucifix (San Casciano, Val di Pesa, Misericordia) in shape and content, Vannuccio’s expresses an especially heightened sense of drama. The artist invites the viewer to share the emotional anguish and physical pain of Christ on the cross. The angular, contorted body communicates supreme suffering to the viewer to create an empathetic emotional effect. These gruesome aspects of Christ’s frail and battered body anticipate Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece.

In spite of the brutal realism of the scene, Vannuccio betrays his Sienese origins in such details as the graceful folds of drapery in Christ’s loincloth. It seems almost to flutter in the wind and reflects a deliberate choice by the artist to adorn the painting decoratively in spite of the violent subject matter. The decorative patterns on the edges of the cloth accentuate the curves and direction of the folds. The curly locks of hair not only indicate the sweat and exhaustion of Christ, but also form a pattern of unusual beauty for such a sobering scene. He repeats the pattern in the long hair of Mary Magdalene at the base of the cross.