Răstignirea

About this work

This painting shows a man nailed to a cross at the center, surrounded by five other figures. The man on the cross wears a crown of thorns and looks upward. To his left stands a woman in dark blue with a sad face, and to his right is a robed figure in red holding a staff. Two others kneel or stand nearby, one with a book and another holding a spear. The background is a dim, misty landscape with a few bare trees. The woman in blue is often linked to Mary, the mother of Jesus, in these kinds of paintings. The man in red might be a saint or disciple, but the painting doesn’t spell it out. If you want to see how artists used light and shadow before this style became famous, look up *chiaroscuro*.