A woman, probably the female disciple Mary Magdalene, kisses the lifeless feet of the crucified Christ as his body is lowered from the cross: detail of 1330s School of Giotto Deposition of Christ or Descent from the Cross fresco in the cloister of the Chiesa dei Francescani, the Franciscan convent church at Bolzano, South Tyrol, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy.
Bolzano / Bozen, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy: a woman, probably the female disciple Mary Magdalene, kisses the lifeless feet of the crucified Christ in a detail of a damaged 14th century Descent from the Cross or Deposition of Christ School of Giotto fresco in the cloister of the Chiesa dei Francescani, the church of the city’s Franciscan convent. The artwork is part of a fresco cycle of about 1330-40 painted by followers of the influential Florentine artist Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267-1337), known as Giotto. In the complete artwork, Saint Mary is also depicted, kissing Christ’s hand and supporting his arm. The New Testament Gospels mention several women watching the Crucifixion, including the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and Mary Salome. They give no details of how Jesus was removed from the cross, and in the early medieval period, Western artists seldom conformed to a single version of the composition. For example, a 12th century mosaic in Sicily shows the Virgin Mary kissing Christ’s arm, but in 1308, the Tuscan painter known as Duccio (Duccio di Buoninsegna, c. 1255-1319) depicted Mary kissing Jesus’ face, with Mary Magdalene kissing his arm. Franciscan friars began to settle in the mainly German-speaking South Tyrol in the early 1200s, while Saint Francis of Assisi was still alive. As a young man, he is believed to have visited an ancient chapel that already stood on the site, and within a few years of his death in 1226, the friars had incorporated that building into their new monastic complex. The original Romanesque church here was rebuilt in Gothic architectural style in 1348 after a fire and the adjoining cloister was similarly updated. The church was badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War.
Size: 2924px × 1945px
Location: Bolzano / Bozen, South Tyrol, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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