The Crucifixion (Mantegna)

Three crosses rise from a paved, rock-strewn Golgotha, the ground split and stony in Mantegna's hard, archaeological manner. At the foot, Roman soldiers in painstakingly reconstructed antique armor cast lots for Christ's seamless robe (John 19:23-24), while the Virgin faints among the holy women at left. This is the central panel from the base, or predella, of his great San Zeno Altarpiece in Verona, sawn off during the Napoleonic looting and never returned with the rest. Mantegna treats flesh and cloth as if carved from stone, and lavishes an antiquarian's care on the foreshortened pavement and the fortified town beyond.