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The Crucifixion

ca. 1675
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 624

This oil sketch helped Murillo to prepare a large painting that is today in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The artist’s characteristic smoky atmosphere, achieved through rough paint handling and masterful distribution of light, creates an ideal image for devout meditation at this small scale: the sun has set, the cloudy sky is streaked with moonlight, Christ’s body falls limp, and Jerusalem can be seen in the dim distance. This intimate canvas is possibly the same "little Crucifixion" owned by Sebastián Martínez (1747–1800), whose portrait by Goya is also in The Met collection.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Crucifixion
  • Artist: Bartolomé Estebán Murillo (Spanish, Seville 1617–1682 Seville)
  • Date: ca. 1675
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 20 x 13 in. (50.8 x 33 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Harry G. Sperling, 1971
  • Object Number: 1976.100.17
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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The Infant St. John the Baptist, Bartolomé Estebán Murillo Spanish, Pen and brown ink with brush and gray wash over black chalk underdrawing. Composition outlined with black chalk inner line and brush and gray wash outer line; framing lines ruled in pen and gray-brown ink, possibly by the artist himself
The Infant St. John the Baptist
Bartolomé Estebán Murillo
1618–82
The Nativity, Bartolomé Estebán Murillo Spanish, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over traces of leadpoint or soft black chalk
The Nativity
Bartolomé Estebán Murillo
ca. 1665–70
Standing Male Figure: Study for a Portrait, Bartolomé Estebán Murillo Spanish, Pen and brown ink over black chalk underdrawing on off-white paper (recto); black chalk (verso)
Standing Male Figure: Study for a Portrait
Bartolomé Estebán Murillo
1670–80
A Knight of Alcántara or Calatrava, Bartolomé Estebán Murillo Spanish, Oil on canvas
A Knight of Alcántara or Calatrava
Bartolomé Estebán Murillo
ca. 1650–55
Virgin and Child, Bartolomé Estebán Murillo Spanish, Oil on canvas
Virgin and Child
Bartolomé Estebán Murillo
1670s

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