Crucifixion and Scenes from the Life of Christ by Bernardino Luini

Crucifixion and Scenes from the Life of Christ by Bernardino Luini (1529)

A wall, not a panel

This is a fresco, painted straight onto the plaster of a church wall. It fills the screen wall that crosses the nave of Santa Maria degli Angeli (also written Angioli) in Lugano, and the photograph shows it rising right up into the gable, under the wooden beams and rafters of the roof.

Luini treated the whole wall as a single picture rather than a set of compartments. Painted pillars at either side form an illusionistic architectural frame, and inside it he laid out one enormous, crowded view of Calvary, with the crosses pushed forward as if to the edge of a stage and the rest of the story told in the landscape behind.

The three crosses

Christ hangs at the centre, higher than the others, under the placard INRI. Angels in coloured robes fly around him, and at the apex of the gable a figure in red is surrounded by more angels. The two thieves hang on either side, their arms bent back over the crossbars. Above the thief on the left, an angel carries away a small naked figure, his soul; on top of the right-hand cross crouches a winged demon. A red banner flies on the left and a yellow standard lettered S.P.Q.R. on the right.

At the foot of the central cross lies a skull. The ground below is packed with people: horsemen in armour, among them a rider on a white horse and one holding up a long lance; soldiers and onlookers in bright costume; and at the lower left a knot of women supporting one who has collapsed, presumably the Virgin. At the lower right, a group of men appear to struggle over a piece of clothing, while a small white dog stands at the edge.

The story in the background

The Web Gallery of Art describes the arrangement: three scenes from before the Crucifixion on the left, three from after it on the right. On the left, high on a hillside, a figure kneels while others lie asleep below, the Agony in the Garden; lower down a seated figure is hemmed in by soldiers on a flight of steps; and across the middle distance a procession winds uphill with Christ carrying the cross. On the right, the dead Christ is laid out and mourned in front of a rock tomb; further right he stands among his disciples, one of whom leans in towards his side; and at the top right he rises in a burst of light above a crowd of figures looking up.

The church

According to the Italian Wikipedia article on the church, building began on 17 February 1499, at the initiative of the people of Lugano and with the Observant Franciscan friars. The church was consecrated on 26 June 1515 by Antonio Rusconi, Bishop of Como, and a convent was added beside it in 1525. After the cantonal government suppressed the convents in 1848 the community was dissolved for good.

The same article describes the base of the painted wall: three round arches, decorated with prophets and figures of saints, and the pilasters painted with Saint Sebastian and Saint Roch. It dates the painting 1529–32; the Web Gallery of Art and the English Wikipedia article on Luini give 1529. Two other works by Luini are in the church: a Last Supper on the left wall of the nave, brought from the convent's refectory, and, in a chapel, a Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist of 1530.

The painter

Bernardino Luini was born around 1480–82 at Runo, a hamlet of Dumenza near Lake Maggiore, and died in Milan in June 1532, so the Lugano wall belongs to the last years of his life. He belonged to the circle of painters around Leonardo da Vinci in Lombardy, and many of his works were at one time attributed to Leonardo.

About this print

Made from a photograph of the painted wall taken inside the church, in its wide format. The edge of the timber roof is part of the picture, a reminder of the painting's size and of the fact that it is still where Luini painted it.

Sources: Web Gallery of Art, Bernardino Luini, "Crucifixion and Scenes from the Life of Christ" (Lugano) · Wikimedia Commons, File:Bernardino_Luini_-Crucifixion_and_Scenes_from_the_Life_of_Christ-_WGA13751.jpg · Wikipedia, "Bernardino Luini" · Wikipedia (Italian), "Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angioli"