Medieval Italian coral crucifix, Southern Italy, 15th-16th century

Christ is depicted with his head slightly inclined towards the centre of the chest, with both the halo and the crown of thorns encircling his forehead and the beard following the jaw. The legs are parallel and flexed forward, the feet are overlapped and nailed together by an original pointed nail; the arms are outstretched, the bones of the torso and the musculature are highlighted, half-closed hands in the centre of which are the signs of the stigmata. The eyes and mouth are closed. The loincloth covers every part of the pelvis and is draped horizontally. The loincloth completely covers the pelvis and is draped horizontally.

Separately, one can distinguish a cartouche bearing the Titulus crucis I.N.R.I. (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum, which literally translates as ‘Jesus Nazarene, King of the Jews’), rectangular in shape, horizontally arranged and wavy to evoke a parchment or sheet, and a Vanitas symbolised by the presence of a skull.

The detail of the skull is a typical iconographic element of the crucifixion. Mount Golgotha, the place of executions, owes its name to the term meaning ‘skull’, probably in reference to both its rounded and bare skull-like shape and its function. According to the Golden Legend, Golgotha was the burial place of Adam, and the skull at the base of the cross recalls this very tradition.