Christ hangs on an unusually tall cross, with the Virgin to the left and John the Evangelist to the right. The background is dark blue. The panel's long and narrow shape suggests that it must have been an independent devotional painting rather than part of an altarpiece.

Everett Fahy (letter dated New York, March 11, 1985) suggested that the picture might be by Pietro di Miniato. It is, in fact, quite close to works that can be dated to his mid- and late career, such as the detached mural paintings of a tabernacle (see Piazzanese (Prato), rectory of San Giusto) of about 1415-20 from the rectory of San Giusto in Piazzanese, outside of Prato, as well as in its figure style to works like the predella showing the Adoration of the Magi (see Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art, Gift of Ferdinand Howald, no. 31.37) in the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art.¹ Carl Brandon Strehlke, from Italian paintings, 1250-1450, in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2004, pp. 361-362.

Notes:

1. It is also similar to a Crucifixion reproduced in Richard Fremantle. Florentine Gothic Painters from Giotto to Masaccio: A Guide to Painting in and near Florence, 1300-1450. London, 1975, fig. 829; however, the dimensions and present whereabouts of that panel are not known.

Bibliography:

Philadelphia Museum of Art. Paintings from Europe and the Americas in the Philadelphia Museum of Art: A Concise Catalogue. Philadelphia, 1994, repro. p. 226 (attributed to Piero di Miniato)