Datable to circa 1495–1505, this well preserved panel illustrating a mystic Crucifixion was painted in the latter part of Botticelli’s career. Federico Zeri recognized it as such in 1959, attributing it to Botticelli, with possible assistance from his workshop. At the time of the 2003 sale (see Provenance) Everett Fahy concurred with this view, though he was unable to identify any specific detail completed by a hand other than Botticelli’s. Fahy’s written opinion is still upheld by scholars today, including Dr Laurence B. Kanter, who, following first-hand inspection, considers this an autograph work by Botticelli and dates it to circa 1500–05.¹

The highly original composition, enlivened by a rich colour palette and imbued with emotional intensity, shows Christ on the cross, surrounded by five saints kneeling in adoration, each rendered with poignant individuality. Mary Magdalene, pressing her cheek against the cross, looks upwards as a single tear falls down her face. Dressed in black as an Augustinian nun, Monica and her son Augustine appear on the left, while on the right are Jerome as a penitent and Bridget of Sweden, who is given greater prominence than the other saints. Her inclusion suggests that the painting’s patron may have been linked to the Bridgettines, the monastic order she founded that follows the Rule of Saint Augustine. The church perched on the rocky outcrop at the upper left, reminiscent of the convent of Santa Brigida, just outside Florence, may be significant in this context. Throughout her life, Saint Bridget, a devout noblewoman connected to the Swedish court, experienced numerous visions of Christ, including one of him on the cross surrounded by symbols of the Passion. She recorded these visions in a book of Revelations, which here she holds in her left hand.

The significance of this composition lies in the inventiveness of its design, most strikingly in Botticelli's seamless blending of a mystical vision with realistic details. Flanked by symbols of the Passion, Christ is isolated against a dark cloth of honour emblazoned with a golden sun and moon – emblematic of the Old and New Testaments, according to Augustine, the latter (the sun) shedding light on the former (the moon) – while the lance and the sponge, both instruments of the Passion (Christ was pierced with one; from the other He drank vinegar), are planted like sentinels in the same ground upon which the saints kneel. By inserting these symbolic elements into a natural setting, Botticelli has granted them a concrete presence, thereby rooting a mystical tradition in concrete reality. Botticelli's ingenuity lies in drawing together the various elements into one scene.

Although the picture first appeared in the literature as early as 1811, it has been inaccessible for much of the twentieth century. Regarded by its first recorded owner, Artaud de Montor, as a work by Domenico Ghirlandaio, the painting has been assigned various attributions, some more implausible than others, including: Jacopo del Sellaio;² Bartolommeo di Giovanni;³ and Piero di Cosimo.⁴ Attributed to the school of Botticelli by both Schmarsow and Horne,⁵ the Crucifixion was published by Everett Fahy in 1968 and again in 1976 with an attribution to the Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend, an anonymous follower of Ghirlandaio, whose catalogue was reconstructed by Zeri and Fahy. Fahy was later to revise his judgment and indeed, both these scholars were to reach broadly similar conclusions about the present work. Zeri regarded it as designed by Botticelli and painted with the limited assistance of the workshop, stating: ‘I believe that there is no reason to deny that this painting is by Botticelli and his pupils: that is to say that Botticelli was responsible for the entire design and executed at the very least the figures of the two female saints at either end, leaving the other parts to the studio, but adding here and there such passages as the robes of the Magdalen.’⁶ Zeri’s emphatic belief that it was painted by Botticelli with the possible assistance of his pupils, though undoubtedly designed by him alone, was referenced in the catalogue at the time of the 2003 sale. An important saleroom notice published on that occasion affirmed Fahy’s revised opinion that the painting was a late work by Botticelli. In this notice, Fahy further clarified that while some studio assistance may exist, he was unable to identify any specific detail completed by a hand other than Botticelli’s.⁷ Today there is further support for Botticelli’s authorship from Andrea Staderini.⁸ Most recently, Laurence Kanter has endorsed the attribution and considers this without doubt to be an autograph work by Botticelli datable to circa 1500–05.⁹

The painting’s originality, its quality – particularly evident in the underdrawing – as well as its affinity to other paintings that date to the last phase of Botticelli’s career lend further support to the attribution. The closest comparison is with Botticelli’s Mystic Crucifixion of about 1500 in the Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, a work in compromised condition that nevertheless shares a number of similarities with the present painting, not only in the figure of Mary Magdalene clutching the foot of the cross but also in the pose of the crucified Christ (fig. 1).¹⁰ While the latter is a turbulent composition, which incorporates themes from the sermons of the Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola, the emphasis here is on Augustinian spirituality and religious seclusion. The central placement of Christ in both works also highlights the difference in atmosphere between the two, the black storm clouds of the Harvard painting contrasting with the solemn black backdrop depicted here.

Of further interest in the present panel is the vibrant drawing and the compositional changes visible under IRR (figs 2 and 3). Christ’s body is outlined with deft strokes and shows significant adjustments to the position of the head and legs, which were originally conceived as posed together at the knees rather than gaping apart to show the cross behind. Initially there was also a degree of twist in the torso, modified to a more frontal position in the final painting. The head was originally slightly higher and to the right; the final solution moves it away from the central axis of the cross. The placement of Saint Jerome’s legs and upraised hand and forearm is also modified. Similarities in the figures shown in profile and in the handling of the drapery have also been drawn with Botticelli’s Mystic Nativity dated 1500 in the National Gallery, London.¹¹

Botticelli’s late compositions have been recognized for their artistic freedom and indeed this Mystic Crucifixion, in which Saints Monica, Augustine, Mary Magdalen, Jerome and Bridget of Sweden convene at the foot of the cross, is remarkable for its originality and for the expressive compassion of the individual figures. The present Crucifixion is one of very few treatments of the subject in his art. Another notable example – his only extant altarpiece in the United Kingdom – is The Holy Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist in the collection of the Courtauld Gallery, London, a large painting on panel attributed to Botticelli and his workshop, datable to about 1491–94 and the subject of a major conservation project currently underway (fig. 4).

¹ 30 September 2020.

² Mackowsky 1899.

³ Berenson 1903 and again in 1938 and 1963.

⁴ Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1936.

⁵ Schmarsow 1898 and Horne, before 1916, ed. 1987.

⁶ Written communication, 7 December 1959.

⁷ New York, Christie’s, 24 January 2003, lot 75, Saleroom Notice: ‘Mr. Everett Fahy has informed us that he believes the present painting ‘is a late work by Botticelli, and presumably, his workshop, ... though, I cannot point to any passage executed by an assistant’ (written communication, 19 December 2002).’

⁸ Staderini in Chiodo and Padovani 2014.

⁹ The attribution of the painting to the Master of the Gothic Buildings (Daly in Paris 2019) has been dismissed as a designation that is outdated as well as irrelevant and is no longer accepted as a valid construct.

¹⁰ No. 1924.27; tempera and oil on canvas (transferred from panel), 72.4 x 51.4 cm.

¹¹ NG1034; oil on canvas, 108.8 x 74.9 cm.