Art Institute of Chicago

Leaf from a Picture Cycle: Christ Carrying the Cross, The Crucifixion, The Descent from the Cross, and the Entombment

French Painter, active in Northern France

Date

1325/50

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold leaf and mordant gilding with French inscriptions in gothica textualis in pen and light brown, red and blue ink, on parchment

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

On this leaf, lively figures tell the story of Christ’s Crucifixion and of his appearances after the Resurrection. They are part of an extensive picture cycle from an early 14th-century book disassembled almost 200 years ago, its illustrated pages now scattered in libraries and private collections. The text has not survived, but the book was probably a Psalter. The original owner used the book for personal devotion, following the Roman numerals and captions in French placed next to each image through the cycles of the life of Christ and the saints. Thus, the numerical sequence makes clear that another page (with XXVI through XIX), now lost, once came between these two; it undoubtedly depicted the Resurrection.

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