The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene

The triptych is executed in oil on panel, later transferred to canvas, though some records list the medium as tempera on canvas. The central panel measures 101 × 56 cm, the side panels 95 × 30 cm. The work displays Perugino’s characteristic formal qualities: a symmetrical composition with rhythmic variations in pose, a unified landscape that stretches continuously across all panels, and atmospheric perspective derived from Flemish models such as Hugo van der Goes’s Portinari Triptych. Delicate, hazy distances, slender trees on rocky outcrops, and a serene, contemplative mood typify the artist’s handling. The calm figures and landscape merge to create a meditative devotional image rather than a narrative one.

The triptych was likely commissioned by Bartolommeo Bartoli, Bishop of Cagli. It originally hung in the Dominican church of San Domenico in San Gimignano. Following Napoleonic suppressions in 1796–1797, French troops confiscated it.

It was then sold to Dr. Buzzi, who resold it as a Raphael to Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Galitzin, the Russian ambassador to Rome. The painting passed to his son Theodore and later to his nephew Sergei Mikhailovich Galitzin, who displayed it in Moscow from 1865. In 1886 the Imperial Hermitage Museum acquired it with the Galitzin collection.

In April 1931 it was sold to Andrew W. Mellon via intermediaries; he deeded it to a trust in June 1931, and it entered the National Gallery of Art as a gift in 1937. The work's date is disputed: the museum's corpus records 1481, while other sources cite about 1485.

The triptych is held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it entered the collection in 1937 as a gift from The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. Its exhibition history includes display from 1865 at the Galitzin Museum of Western Painting in Moscow, followed by tenure at the Imperial Hermitage Gallery in Saint Petersburg from 1886 until 1931. After its sale in 1931 to Andrew Mellon, the painting remained in his possession before being accessioned into the National Gallery of Art through the 1937 Mellon bequest.

The work functions as a meditation on the Crucifixion, indicated by the inclusion of Saint Jerome, moving beyond a straightforward narrative. The composition typifies the Renaissance with spatial and perspective continuity across the panels. The serene deportment of the figures is mirrored in the landscape, which is characteristic of Perugino: gentle hills dotted with slender trees, a motif he transmitted to the Umbrian school.

Atmospheric effects, with hazy distance creating depth, derive from Flemish models such as Hugo van der Goes's Portinari Triptych. The triptych exemplifies Perugino's synthesis of Renaissance spatial clarity and Flemish naturalism, securing its place within the artist's mature output and the broader Italian Renaissance.

The Galitzin Triptych was long misattributed to Raphael, a testament to its quality and the high regard it commanded. Now securely attributed to Perugino, the work is valued for its serene, unified composition and atmospheric landscape. The slender trees and graduated hillsides seen here are characteristic of Perugino and were transmitted to the entire Umbrian school, shaping regional painting.

Its passage through prestigious collections, from the Hermitage to the National Gallery of Art, underscores its enduring significance within the Italian Renaissance canon.

Pietro Perugino's The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene, painted around 1485, is an oil on panel work now housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. This triptych depicts the central Christian event of the Crucifixion, flanked by significant saints, showcasing the artist's characteristic devotional clarity and compositional balance.