| The Cross of Alberto stands as a fixed point in the history of Italian medieval art; its inscription gives the name of Alberto “Sotio”—probably the artist—and the date of 1187, making it the earliest signed and dated work in Umbria. It is the product of a major workshop in Spoleto, with Alberto as its head, that produced a number of works in both fresco and panel painting. The Cross gains significance because it added new facets of form and function, as well as new elements of iconography and style, to the croce dipinta . Behind the nimbus a compartment made possible the storage of a relic—a first for a painted cross—and the nimbus itself provided a new and significant function. The placement of the face of Christ against the nimbus, shaped like a paten and also slanting forward in the direction of the worshiper, associated Christ with the Eucharist in an explicit way and increased the intimacy between the figure on the Cross and the worshiper. The painter has chosen his style, a combination of abstraction and naturalism, to give visual reality to the theological concept of the Incarnation. The flesh-revealing transparent loincloth, its earliest representation on a painted cross, visualizes the Incarnation of Christ, the doctrine that he is both fully human and fully divine. On the Cross the artist reveals an exquisite sensitivity to materials and iconography that will convey devotional content. This painted cross is a touchstone that redefines the place of the Umbrian painted crosses within the greater field of Italian medieval art. |
