3-002-787 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Wing of a Reliquary Diptych with the Crucifixion and Saints, c1355-1370. This work, perhaps the right wing of a diptych (two-panel painting), is one of only two known 14th-century paintings to combine painted panels with plaques of verre églomisé (gilded reverse painted glass). The Crucifixion at center and the Virgin at the top are verre églomisé by an unknown artist, while the images of numerous saints around them are panel paintings by Tommaso da Modena. The Crucifixion and the Virgin were scratched into gold leaf applied to the back of glass. The areas where the gold leaf had been removed were painted to clarify the scenes. This object doubles as a reliquary; the labels in red around the Crucifixion identify the relics enshrined within. These are the wood of the True Cross and a stone from the Holy Sepulcher (top), the bones of the 11,000 Virgins and one of the Magi (right), the bones of St. James the Apostle (bottom), the Apostle Andrew, the Evangelist Luke, and St. Peter and St. Paul (left).