DAVID, Gerard
(b. ca. 1460, Oudewater, d. 1523, Bruges)

Crucifixion

c. 1515
Oil on oak, 141 x 100 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

In this painting many of the figures hearken back to the most inventive masters (Jan van Eyck or Robert Campin) active long before. This is seen in such features as the oblique placement of the cross and the garb of the Roman soldiers, and from details like the lively dog digging up Adam's bones, at the right, buried at the base of the cross, his skull giving the site the name of Golgotha ("the place of the skull").