The ''Crucifixion between Sts. Jerome and Christopher'' is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Pinturicchio, painted around 1475 and housed in the Borghese Gallery of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is one of the earliest known works by the Umbrian painter, after some of the panels of the ''

Miracles of St Bernardino ''Miracles of St Bernardino'' is a series of eight tempera-on-panel paintings showing miracles associated with Bernardino of Siena. They date to 1473 and are now in the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria. Attributed to the ''Master of 1473'' or the ...

'' (1473).

Description

The work depicts the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

on a river valley background, whose small details show the influence of Flemish painting. At the sides are a penitent St. Jerome, with the traditional symbols of the tamed lion, the cardinal hat on the ground, and a stone used to hit his chest. On the right is

St. Christopher Saint Christopher ( el, Ἅγιος Χριστόφορος, ''Ágios Christóphoros'') is venerated by several Christian denominations as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman emperor Decius (reigned 249–251) or alternatively u ...

holding the martyrdom palm and looking at the young Jesus on his shoulder. The latter, in turn, holds an apple and wears a coif, an element which is present in other early Pinturicchio works, such as the ''Madonna with Blessing Child'' in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The work shares the same preparatory drawing, and perhaps the cartoon, of a work by

Fiorenzo di Lorenzo Fiorenzo di Lorenzo ( 1440 – 1522) was an Italian painter, of the Umbrian school. He lived and worked at Perugia, where most of his authentic works are still preserved in the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria. Fiorenzo is known from a few sign ...

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crucifixion between Sts. Jerome and Christopher 1470s paintings Paintings by Pinturicchio Paintings in the Borghese Collection Pinturicchio Lions in art Paintings of Jerome category:Paintings of Saint Christopher