Crucifixion

This Crucifixion by Lippo Memmi, painted around 1340, reflects the art of Simone Martini's most important collaborator and brother-in-law, who helped define the International Gothic style that spread from Siena across Europe. Lippo worked closely with Simone on major commissions including the Annunciation altarpiece for Siena Cathedral, and his own style combines the master's elegant linearity with a more restrained emotional register. Now at the Louvre, this panel demonstrates the refined, courtly approach to religious subjects that made Sienese painting so influential in fourteenth-century Europe.

Executed in tempera and gold on panel, the Crucifixion displays Lippo's characteristic graceful linearity and restrained palette. The figures are rendered with the delicate, elongated proportions associated with the Sienese school, and the gold ground is elaborately tooled with decorative punch work.