Description
The Triptych with the Crucifixion and Saints, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is a small portable altarpiece associated with Duccio di Buoninsegna and his workshop. The central panel depicts Christ on the cross and the people witnessing his death. Saint Nicholas occupies one wing and a papal saint the other. Traditionally called Saint Gregory, the latter has more recently been proposed as Saint Clement.
Its emotional intensity and craftsmanship are particularly notable, as is its close physical relationship to a second Duccio triptych in London. The suggestion that both were made for the same patron remains hypothetical. Boston's museum acquired the painting in 1945. The saints on the side panels remind us that the Crucifixion was not meant to be contemplated only as a distant episode of sacred history.






