MEDIEVAL SCULPTOR, German
(active 1240-1250 in Naumburg)

Crucifixion

c. 1245
Stone
Cathedral, Naumburg

The statues of the Crucifixion group do not just tell stories with their bodies, as do those on the exteriors of Gothic cathedrals like Reims. Here, sobbing and tearful, wringing their hands in grief, they provide stations of emotional identification, faces with which one can empathize and onto which one can project feelings. Christ sagging body, too, represents a new naturalism in the depiction of tortured flesh.