Performing virtual pilgrimage to Rome: A rediscovered Christ crucified from a series of three panel paintings (ca. 1500)

Abstract

Pilgrimage is one of the most indispensable aspects to consider when determining the function of late medieval imagery, especially images that are related to indulgences. Some of them have been examined as an aid to perform pilgrimage without the hardship of an actual journey a virtual pilgrimage through which one could earn indulgences. Prominent examples are the small panels with Saint fohn the Baptist with a letter 'A in Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, and the Virgin and Child with a letter 'D' in the Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery in Greenville. The first was thoroughly examined in 1981 by Henri Defoer, who compared the panel with an illustration of Die costelijke scat der gheestelijker rijcdoem (Heavenly treasure of spiritual wealth), which was a pilgrimage guide to Rome, especially to the Seven Pilgrimage Churches in Rome. On the basis of the subject and its letter, Defoer concluded that the panel shows San Giovanni in Laterano. The second was reported by Catherine Reynolds in 1997 as a panel with Santa Maria Maggiore. This article presents for the first time a third panel, that was recently rediscovered in a private collection. The panel depicts a Christ crucified in front of an unknown church with a letter 'G'. After summarizing Defoer's study on the Utrecht and Greenville panels, the author will present the panel as Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, the last station to perform the virtual pilgrimage to Rome. The discussion will be followed by stylistic analysis to suggest that the three panels were made by different members from the same workshop in the early-sixteenth Southern Netherlands.