Faces of two spectators at crucifixion of Jesus: one expresses surly disbelief; the other, faith in Jesus as the Son of God. Detail of early 1300s AD Late Gothic School of Giotto 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: doubt and disbelief show on the faces of spectators at the Crucifixion as they listen to a Roman centurion proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, in this detail of a stark Late Gothic School of Giotto fresco in the 14th century cloister of the Chiesa dei Francescani, the church of the city’s Franciscan convent. The painting, depicting Jesus in agony on the cross against a black background, was created as part of a fresco cycle in about 1330-40 by followers of the influential Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267-1337), known as Giotto. It shows Roman soldiers listening to the mounted centurion as he points towards the cross - but the expressions on the faces of Christ’s enemies in the watching crowd below tell their own story. 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: 3008px × 2000px
Location: Bolzano / Bozen, South Tyrol, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1267-1337, 1300s, 1330-40, 1330s, 14th, adige, art, biblical, bolzano, bondone, bozen, catholic, centurion, century, chiesa, christ, christian, christianity, church, cloister, convent, crowd, crucifixion, cycle, , dei, detail, di, disbelief, doubt, doubters, downturned, early, enemies, expressions, facial, followers, francescani, franciscan, fresco, frescoes, frescos, friars, frowning, giotto, god, gospels, gothic, grimacing, holy, italy, kerr, late, medieval, monastic, mouth, onlookers, painted, painting, pre-renaissance, roman, school, son, south, spectators, terence, testament, trentino-alto, tyrol, wall, week
