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Museum of Sacred Art
Certaldo
Two 13th century monumental wooden crucifixes
 A work of exceptional fascination because of the expressive power of the face and the body, this Crucifix differs, owing to its rare modernity, from similar examples carved between the 12th and 13th centuries. The fascination of the work is increased by the mystery that encircles it: we know neither the author nor the original provenance. The Christus triumphans looks at us through eloquently large wide-open eyes. His face is youthful and characterized by a beard and a moustache, highlighted by delicate colors, which extend to his hair, which is carved to frame his face and neck. The half-opened mouth enhances the image’s sense of immediacy, with a total absence of suffering that conveys the majesty and attainment of the, by now, divine nature of Christ. The body, represented in a rigid, frontal position, is nude, wrapped around the hips by a perisonium (loin cloth), the straight legs rest on the suppedaneum and are nailed separately, without the crossing of the feet that characterizes the iconography of the Christus patiens, which will establish itself definitively at the end of the 13th century.
 This imposing Crucifix, by an unknown sculptor, datable between 1210 and 1225, comes from the Church of San Vincenzo a Torri, in the Florentine province. He is not the Christus Triumphans of the early Middle Ages, but he is not the fully humanized “Word made flesh”, yet. In this Crucified Christ, the sacred and the human intermingle and merge to exalt the mystery of the incarnation. His face is thin and elongated and slightly leaning to the right. His half-closed eyes reveal a burden of human suffering. His hair is subtly incised. His arms and torso are made of solid surfaces, so that when illuminated, they do not create the dramatic effects typical of Crucifixes from a later period. His feet stand firmly on a plane and his straight legs do not need to make the effort of supporting His body. The physical body retains its vigour, keeps itself up, does not bend or arch in dying. The Holy Spirit saves it from decomposition, it gives it the dignity and majesty reserved only to the Son of God. And this is what disquiets, and stirs the soul while looking at this work of art worshipped in popular tradition.
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