The
Crucifixion was brought to
the Louvre in 1798 and put on exhibition immediately. In 1806 two of the predella panels (the
Mount of Olives and the
Resurrection) were sent to the museum of
Tours. In 1815 the central panel and the two wings were taken back to
Italy and exhibited in the city museum at
Verona. After 1918, they were returned to the church of
San Zeno, where they still remain - though they are not very easy to see. The commission of 1815 charged with reclaiming the works of art taken from the
Veneto left the
predella panels in the possession of the Louvre and the museum of
Tours. The
Crucifixion was in the middle of the predella, exactly in the centre, as may be seen in the full altarpiece image below. Mantegna was striving after an effect of steep
visual perspective such as he had already achieved in the
Eremitani chapel at
Padua. The figures in the foreground, cut by the frame, increase the effect of recession; the vanishing lines of the ground are curved inwards and somehow contracted. The artist's feeling for nature is revealed by the minuteness with which he has represented every detail of the landscape. The accurate delineation of the
Roman soldiers' equipment is evidence of an attitude to antiquity unknown in
Florence at that period. Florentine artists sought to understand and emulate the aesthetic quality of antique sculpture and architecture, but cared little for historical exactitude, which Mantegna on the other hand pursued with the passionate devotion of an
archaeologist. In fact, the
Veneto was from the 14th century onwards, the chief Italian centre for the traffic in
anticaglie - Venetian towns owned ''cabinets d'antiquités'' long before these were found in
Florence.
Predella details Image:Crucifixion - Andrea Mantegna - Louvre INV 368.jpg|The central panel (
The Crucifixion) Image:Andrea Mantegna 030.jpg|Detail of the central panel Image:Andrea Mantegna 031.jpg|Detail of the central panel ==See also ==