[1] The work was commissioned by the Franciscan friars of Santa Croce and is built from a complex arrangement of five main and eight ancillary timber boards.

A graphic portrayal of human suffering, the painting is of seminal importance in art history and has influenced painters from Michelangelo, Caravaggio and Velázquez to Francis Bacon.

Founded by Saint Francis of Assisi, their reformist, religious and social views had a profound effect on the visual arts in the century after his death.

Imagery based on Franciscan ideals in the thirteenth century generally reinforce his veneration of simplicity and naturalism, infusing the paintings with the new values of humanism.

[8] Pale tonalities dominate, with the main contrast found in the dark areas of Christ's hair and beard, which are utilised to make the features of his face stand out more and position his head as the focal point.

[9] Compared to earlier works of this type, Christ's body is more physically corporeal, depicted as a real object, and his anatomy more closely rendered.

His hands and feet seem to extend beyond the pictorial space, which is delineated by the flat, coloured borders of the cross,[4] in turn made up of at least six boards.

The choice of a white, veil-like loincloth, dramatically more modest than the red garment in the Arezzo work, may be influenced by earlier crucifixions by Giunta Pisano.

It seems influenced by a thirteenth-century Franciscan Meditation on Christ that emphasised pathos and human interest in the suffering of the Passion; "Turn your eyes away from His divinity for a little while and consider Him purely as a man".

[17] The painting contains elements typical of Cimabue's representations of Christ, including the illusionism of the drapery folds, the large halo, long flowing hair, dark, angular faces and dramatic expressions.

Typical of depictions of the crucified Christ of this era, with his outstretched arms he is as wide as he is long, conforming to prevalent ideals of proportions.

The size and positions of the figures are reduced compared to usual Byzantine iconography[4] to maintain sole focus on the passion of Christ.

The origin of the Crucifix has often been contested, but is generally thought to be by Cimabue based on stylistic traits and mentions by both Vasari and Nicolò Albertini.

The water deposited oil, mud and naphtha on the wood frame,[29] which further swelled from soakage, forcing the panel to expand and bend, cracking the paint-work.

[30] A team of restorers led by conservators Umberto Baldini and Ornella Casazza at the "Laboratario del Restauro" in Florence[29][31] spent ten years reapplying paint.

According to the critic Waldemar Januszczak, it was brought "around the globe in a curious, post-restoration state—part original artwork, part masterpiece of modern science... a thirteenth century—twentieth-century hybrid.