The Crucifixion

This small etching with its intense focus on the crucified bodies of Christ and the two thieves is an excellent example of the way many Italian painters approached the etching plate as a drawing surface available for spontaneous pensieri or first thoughts. This approach coincided with an increased appreciation for the power of drawings to reveal an artist’s fusion of technical and intellectual brilliance. The practice of collecting drawings and prints grew in popularity throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Little is known about the artist of this and a small group of related etchings signed with the monogram “GPP,” but he is most convincingly identified with the Bolognese artist Giovanni Pietro Possenti.