Calvary (Antwerp Crucifixion)

Christ's cross towers over a sunlit landscape of bay, walled town, and tiny travelers on the roads, with the Virgin and Saint John seated quietly on the ground and skulls littering Golgotha below (John 19:25-27); the two thieves twist on rough trees in the distance. Antonello had absorbed the oil technique and minute realism of Netherlandish painting and carried them to Venice, where they transformed local art. The nearly identical Crucifixion by Giovanni Bellini in this collection is the visible result of that meeting. Here the jewel-like detail and a broad Italian sense of space hold each other in balance.