Crucifix (Cross No. 20)

This monumental painted crucifix, known as Cross No. 20, was created around 1210 by the Byzantine Master of the Crucifix of Pisa, now in the National Museum of San Matteo. It belongs to the important tradition of large-scale painted crucifixes in Tuscan churches that served as focal points for devotion above the rood screen or suspended in the nave. The artist's name derives from this work, and the strong Byzantine stylistic features indicate the continuing influence of Eastern models on early 13th-century Italian painting.

Painted in tempera and gold on a shaped wooden cross panel, the crucifix features the Christus Patiens type with closed eyes and bowed head. The figure is rendered with the mannered linear drapery folds and dark, olive-toned flesh modeling characteristic of the maniera greca tradition in Pisan painting.