Crucifix with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, Christ the Redeemer, and a Praying Woman

The small scale of this cross makes it likely that it was commissioned for a private chapel or building. A veiled woman, kneeling in prayer at the foot of the cross, may be the patron who commissioned it. Her presence makes it likely that the crucifix was made for a female audience, either lay or monastic. In the thirteenth century, Italian painters went from depicting rigid figures of Christ, who gazed triumphantly, eyes open, at the beholder, to more emotionally charged representations of the Redeemer, whose dead and bleeding body hangs from the cross in the direction of the supplicant. Such crucifixes were often claimed to be miraculous. Some beholders, such as Saint Francis praying to the crucifix in the Church of San Damiano at Assisi, heard Christ speak; others saw his head move, or were levitated or cured while focusing their devotion on the cross.