Crucifixion

It is debatable whether this picture (which once belonged to the Cologne-born Paris banker Everard Jabach (1610-1695) but by 1683 at the latest was in the possession of the French king Louis XIV) is identical with a picture on the same subject described by Marco Boschini in the Casa Garzoni in Venice in 1660.

The arrangement of the crosses links the picture with an incomparably more dramatic Crucifixion painted for the Venetian church of San Nicolo della Lattuga (Gallerie dell’ Accademia, Venice). Both works display the same glowing colors and the occasional borrowing from Tintoretto. Particularly memorable is the shrouded figure in the yellow robe, which is often identified as Mary Magdalene, but is more probably Synagoga, the personification of Judaism.