Crucifixions and crucifixes have appeared in the arts and popular culture from before the era of the pagan Roman Empire. The crucifixion of Jesus has been depicted in a wide range of religious art since the 4th century CE, frequently including the appearance of mournful onlookers such as the Virgin Mary, Pontius Pilate, and angels, as well as antisemitic depictions portraying Jews as responsible for Christ's death. Modern art and culture have also seen the rise of images of crucifixion being used to make statements unconnected with Christian iconography, or even just used for shock value.
Art
Late antiquity
The earliest known artistic representations of crucifixion predate the Christian era, including Greek representations of mythical crucifixions inspired by the use of the punishment by the Persians.
The Alexamenos graffito, currently in the museum in the Palatine Hill, Rome, is a Roman graffito from the 2nd century CE which depicts a man worshiping a crucified donkey. This graffito, though apparently meant as an insult, is the earliest known pictorial representation of the crucifixion of Jesus.Walter Lowrie, Monuments of the Early Church, Macmillan, 1901, p. 238Dom Dunstan Adams, What is Prayer?, Gracewing Publishing, 1999, p. 48Father John J Pasquini, John J. Pasquini, True Christianity: The Catholic Way, iUniverse, 2003, p. 105Augustus John Cuthbert Hare, Walks in Rome, Volume 1, Adamant Media Corporation, 2005, p. 201 The text scrawled around the image reads in Greek , which approximately translates to "Alexamenos worships God".Catholic Encyclopedia, The Ass (in Caricature of Christian Beliefs and Practices)The Crucifixion and Docetic Christology A Sociological Analysis of Graffiti Charles William King, Gnostics and their Remains, 1887, p. 433 note 12
In the first three centuries of Early Christian art, the crucifixion was rarely depicted. Some engraved gems thought to be 2nd or 3rd century have survived, but the subject does not appear in the art of the Catacombs of Rome, and it is thought that at this period the image was restricted to heretical groups of Christians. The earliest Western images clearly originating in the mainstream of the church are 5th-century, including the scene on the doors of Santa Sabina, Rome.Schiller, 89–91, fig. 321 Constantine I forbade crucifixion as a method of execution, and early church leaders regarded crucifixion with horror, and thus, as an unfit subject for artistic portrayal.Elizabeth A. Dreyer, The Cross in Christian Tradition: From Paul to Bonaventure, Paulist Press, 2001, pp. 21–22.
The purported discovery of the True Cross by Constantine's mother, Helena, and the development of Golgotha as a site for pilgrimage, together with the dispersal of fragments of the relic across the Christian world, led to a change of attitude. It was probably in Syria Palaestina that the image developed, and many of the earliest depictions are on the Monza ampullae, small metal flasks for holy oil, that were pilgrim's souvenirs from the Holy Land, as well as 5th-century ivory reliefs from Italy.Schiller, 89–90, figs. 322–326 Prior to the Middle Ages, early Christians preferred to focus on the "triumphant" Christ, rather than a dying one, because the concept of the risen Christ was so central to their faith. The plain cross became depicted, often as a "glorified" symbol, as the crux gemmata, covered with jewels, as many real early medieval processional crosses in goldsmith work were.
Eastern church
Early depictions showed a living Christ, and tended to minimize the appearance of suffering, so as to draw attention to the positive message of resurrection and faith, rather than to the physical realities of execution.R. Kevin Seasoltz ,A Sense Of The Sacred: Theological Foundations Of Christian Architecture And Art, 2005, Continuum International Publishing Group, pp. 99–110. In the early history of the church in Ireland, important events were often commemorated by erecting pillars with elaborate crucifixes carved into them, such as where Saint Patrick, returning as a missionary bishop, saw the place he was held captive in his youth.Adomnan of Iona. Life of St Columba, Penguin books, 1995.
Early Byzantine depictions such as that in the Rabbula Gospels often show Christ flanked by Longinus and Stephaton with their spear and pole with vinegar. According to the gospels, the vinegar was offered just before Christ died, and the lance used just after, so the presence of the two flanking figures symbolizes the "double reality of God and man in Christ".Schiller, 93 In images from after the end of the Byzantine Iconoclasm, Christ is shown as dead, but his "body is undamaged and there is no expression of pain"; the Eastern church held that Christ's body was invulnerable. The S-shaped slumped body type was developed in the 11th century. These images were one of the complaints against Constantinople given by Rome in the Great Schism of 1054, although the Gero Cross in Cologne is probably nearly a century older.Schiller, 99 quoted, 94–99
Greek painters from Constantinople heavily influenced Italian Byzantine art. Nikolaos Philanthropinos, Theophanes of Constantinople, and Apollonios were active in the Venetian Empire and taught painting. Philanthropinos painted St Mark's Basilica after the fire in the 1430s. Crete became the epicenter of Greek painting during the Renaissance and Baroque eras the style became known as the Cretan school of painting. Countless painters depicted the Crucifixion. Their work was heavily influenced by Venetian painting but followed the Greek mannerism prevalent at the time known as the Maniera Greca. Andreas Pavias uniquely depicted the Crucifixion following a gothic style and the painter depicted the impenitent thief turned around with his back facing the viewers to denote the difference between the two historical biblical figures. Other Cretan painters followed his style Theophanes the Cretan depicted the reversed figure in his Crucifixion fresco at Stavronikita Monastery on Mount Athos, Greece. Emmanuel Lambardos also continued the style in his Crucifixion.
By the mid-1600s, Konstantinos Paleokapas completed his work entitled The Crucifixion following the traditional Maniera Greca. A mixture of Venetian painting and the traditional Greek Byzantine Style influenced the paintings but new colors were added painters chose to use gold-gilded backgrounds while also modernizing the dimensionality of the figures. Around 1647, Georgios Margkazinis finished his version of The Crucifixion (Margkazinis) which was an oil painting on limestone for San Giorgio dei Greci. The painter chose to emulate the Passion of Jesus a work by Jan Sadeler I a Flemish engraver. Greek painters in the Venetian world began to follow the new style. Another notable painting that falls between the late Cretan school and Heptanese school is The Crucifixion (Moskos) by Ioannis Moskos painted in 1711.
Western church
The earliest Western images of a dead Christ may be in the Utrecht Psalter, probably before 835.Schiller, 99 quoted, 94–99, 105–106 Other early Western examples include the Gero Cross and the reverse of the Cross of Lothair, both from the end of the 10th century. The first of these is the earliest near life-size sculpted cross to survive, and in its large scale represents "suffering in its extreme physical consequences", a trend that was to continue in the West.Schiller, 141 quoted, 105–106, 141–142 Such figures, especially as roods, large painted or sculpted crucifixes hung high in front of the chancel of churches, became very important in Western art, providing a sharp contrast with Eastern Orthodox traditions, where the subject was never depicted in monumental sculpture, and increasingly rarely even in small Byzantine ivories. By contrast, an altar cross, almost always a crucifix, became compulsory in Western churches in the Middle Ages. That it should be a crucifix was first specified in the Roman Missal of 1570 and small wall-mounted crucifixes were increasingly popular in Catholic homes from the Counter-Reformation, if not before. The image of a crucifix that bled when mocked and struck by Jews also gained popularity during this time.Sara Lipton, ""Images and their Uses" in The Cambridge History of Christianity: Christianity in Western Europe c. 1000 - c.1500, ed. Miri Rubin and Walter Simons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 254-283
As a broad generalization, the earliest depictions, before about 900, tended to show all three crosses (those of Jesus, the Good Thief and the Bad Thief), but later medieval depictions mostly showed just Jesus and his cross. From the Renaissance either type might be shown. The number of other figures shown depended on the size and medium of the work, but there was a similar trend for early depictions to show a number of figures, giving way in the High Middle Ages to just the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, shown standing on either side of the cross, as in the Stabat Mater depictions, or sculpted or painted on panels at the end of each arm of a rood cross.
The soldiers were less likely to be shown, but others of the party with Mary and John might be. Angels were often shown in the sky, and the Hand of God in some early depictions gave way to a small figure of God the Father in the heavens in some later ones, those these were always in the minority. Other elements that might be included were the sun and moon (evoking the darkening of the heavens at the moment of Christ's death), and Ecclesia and Synagoga. There were also representations of the alleged aggressors, including depictions of Jews mocking, glaring, slapping, and ultimately crucifying Jesus.Sara Lipton, ""Images and their Uses" in The Cambridge History of Christianity: Christianity in Western Europe c. 1000 – c.1500, ed. Miri Rubin and Walter Simons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 254–283 Although according to the Gospel accounts his clothing was removed from Jesus before his crucifixion, most artists have thought it proper to represent his lower body as draped in some way. In one type of sculpted crucifix, of which the Volto Santo in Lucca is the classic example, Christ continued to wear the long collobium robe of the Rabbula Gospels. The motif of the Pelican in her Piety – a mother pelican plucking flesh from her breast to feed her chicks – appears at the top of the cross in many medieval crucifixion scenes. The mother pelican signifies Jesus, sacrificing his flesh for man's (the chicks') salvation.
In the Gothic period more elaborate narrative depictions developed, including many extra figures of Mary Magdalene, disciples, especially The Three Marys behind the Virgin Mary, soldiers often including an officer on a horse, and angels in the sky. The moment when Longinus the centurion pierces Christ with his spear (the "Holy Lance") is often shown, and the blood and water spurting from Christ's side is often caught in a chalice held by an angel. In larger images the other two crosses might return, but most often not. In some works donor portraits were included in the scene.Schiller, 151–158 Such depictions begin in the late 12th century, and become common where space allows in the 13th century.Schiller, 151–152