# Crucifixion and Scenes from the Life of Christ [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LUINI, Bernardino]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Fresco ## Commentary In the Renaissance period the decoration of the church is frequently focused on the apse and the entrance wall. These terminal walls of extended interior spaces are visible from a great distance, catching visitors' attention. The decoration of the apse towers over the events of mass at the high altar; the decoration of the inside wall of the façade serves as an admonition or reinforcement for the visitors as they leave the liturgical ceremony and the church. Large format in both places called for fundamental, weighty themes. Examples of large-scale painted apse recesses are common in the areas ruled by Venice but also in Emilia. A special form of decoration for end walls is found in Lombardy. Particularly in the monastery buildings of the Franciscan Observants, large rood screens cut across the nave of the church. These walls separate entirely the chancel area of the monks from the area of the lay brothers in front. The front of the wall, facing the space for the laity, would be used as a large surface for frescoes with scenes from the life and Passion of Christ. The partition in Santa Maria degli Angeli in Lugano was frescoed in 1529 by Bernardino Luini. In contrast to early examples, Luini unites the entire wall into a single picture plane. To achieve a huge, overwhelming scenographic effect, Luini relinquished any division of the wall into small parts. The view looks through an illusionistic architectural frame to an enormous, crowded panorama of the Crucifixion. In the foreground, the crosses, Christ's death, and reactions of people push right up to the viewer, as if to the edge of a stage. Small, separate subsidiary scenes are arranged in the background landscape. In a symmetrical arrangement, three episodes on the left that preceded the Crucifixion are contrasted with three episodes on the right that followed Christ's death. ## Related artworks - [A Female Martyr]() - [Crucifixion and Scenes from the Life of Christ]() - [Crucifixion]() - [Girls Bathing]() - [Holy Family with the Infant St John]() - [Madonna and Child with St John the Baptist and the Lamb]() - [Madonna and Child with Sts Catherine and Barbara \(detail\)]() - [Madonna and Child with Sts Catherine and Barbara]() - [Madonna in the Rose Garden]() - [Madonna of the Carnation]() - [Madonna with Child and the Young St John]() - [Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()