Newsletter: Winter 1989

The Mystical Crucifixion remains something of an enigma, both in attribution and subject matter. The subject, the crucified Christ surrounded by half-figures of the Doctors of the Church and Saint Paul floating on clouds against a gold ground, is clearly meditative. Curious details in the lower part of the composition, a fly, painted with startling realism, sitting on the skull of Adam at the foot of the cross, and to the left, an active ant hill, even prompted one Italian scholar to ques tion the Italian origin of the painting. Whether or not there will ever by a definitive attribution for the painting, it is a remarkably beautiful and deeply moving devotional picture