The depiction of the cross, associated with Jesus’ death, is the culminating event of salvation history in which Christ offered himself to the Father for the sins of humanity. The cross, an instrument of ignominy and torment, becomes for Christians a symbol of life and hope through the glorious Resurrection. The theme of the Crucifixion has always occupied a central place in artistic production in the Christian West and East, and there have been various ways of representing the last moments of Christ’s earthly life on the cross.
Throughout the centuries, artists have rewritten, reinterpreted and brought to life the Passion of Christ, narrated in the canonical gospels (Mt 26-27; Mk 14-15; Lk 22-23; Jn 18-19), with the aim of actualizing and explicating a message, always making it new and effective.
In the miniature (Ms. 2020, c.55r), placed at the opening of the Johannine Gospel pericope, the miniaturist decides to capture the moment before Jesus’ death.
At the center of the scene is Christ, with his body lying on the upright wood and his arms spread wide on the patibulum. From the wounds, caused by the nails and the spear blow delivered by Longinus, gushes blood that irrigates the exhumed skull of Adam, placed at the foot of the cross, representing humanity redeemed by Christ’s sacrifice. According to tradition, in fact, Golgotha is the place where Adam rests in the tomb.
Christ’s head, haloed and crowned with thorns, is turned toward a group of women led by John. It is at this very moment that Jesus entrusts His Mother with the beloved disciple, “Woman, behold your son!” And turning to John, “Behold your mother!” From the expressions of the characters, it is possible to grasp the state of mind with which they receive the last words: John, having listened, directs his gaze toward the new maternal figure to whom he has been entrusted; Our Lady, on the other hand, looking more pitying than sorrowful, gathers her hands in prayer, confidently accepting the will left by her natural Son.
This typology of representation sheds light on theological exegesis, which recognizes in the shed blood of Jesus the original source of the sacrament of the Eucharist, and in the reunion of the Mother of God and the beloved Apostle in the moments before the Lord’s death, the birth act of the Church.
The emotional charge of the parting that precedes death is heightened by the participation of other women, placed with the Mother at Christ’s right hand. The three figures accompanying the Virgin and the disciple John to the site of Golgotha are matched in the Gospel passages, and can be identified with a sister of Our Lady, Mary of Clèofa, and Mary of Magdala.
Of great significance are the colors that the miniaturist decided to attribute to the robes of the Virgin and the other pious woman positioned behind her, possibly Mary of Maagdala. The Mother of Jesus wears a long gray robe complete with a blue mantle, which wraps her head and most of her body, while Mary of Maagdala is wrapped in a red mantle. In iconographic tradition, both red and blue are the colors of the robes that identify the Virgin Mary, symbolizing the human and divine nature of her Son to whom she is bound as Mother of Jesus true God and true Man. In this Mount Calvary scene, the artist wanted to assign the two colors to two different characters, this to emphasize through the color red, carried by Mary of Maagdala, the role of humanity in salvation history.
Christ’s cross, is flanked by those of the two thieves portrayed on the bias. In contrast to the ascetic composure of Jesus, the evildoers are writhing in pain, estranged from the commotion taking place around them. On the other side of the cross, two male figures on horseback-perhaps identifiable with high priests or elders-point their fingers at Christ, debating the question of whether the crucified man is really the son of God. The two figures are wearing a half-leg pellanda and a headdress typical of the first half of the 16th century.
In the background, a troop of armigers in monochrome watch the scene. In the Calvary described by the Maȋtre de Claude de France – to whom the miniatures contained in the Gospel are attributed – the landscape background is set in a homogeneous and measurable space in line with the representational laws, which from the fifteenth century onward would condition European painting. The outlines of the city of Jerusalem are discernible, depicted as a turreted city protected by walls.
Surrounding the page is a frame with two different ornamental motifs along the side bands. In the first band on the left, a decorative grotesque motif on a gold background, characteristic of Renaissance art, unfolds; in the right band, on the other hand, objects and instruments of torture used in the passio Christi: the gambling dice symbolizing the Roman soldiers; the thirty coins that Judas Iscariot received from the high priests; the rooster that crowed during Peter’s denial; the scourging pillar; the scourges; the pitcher with the basin that recalls Pilate’s gesture; the sword with which Peter cut off the high priest’s ear; the cross with the crown of thorns and the anepigraphic cartouche; the ladder, spear and reed with the sponge; the empty tomb.
The coat of arms in the center of the lower panel flaunts the coat of arms of the dedicatee, Francis de Valois-Angoulême (1518-1536), Dauphin of France and son of King Francis I (1494-1547). The coat of arms is surrounded by a “list” charged with the motto: Qui passus pro nobis Domine miserere nobis. []