Master of the Franciscan Crucifixes

The Master of the Franciscan Crucifixes is the notname given to an Italian painter active in the 1260s and 1270s.

[1] In 1922, the Swedish art historian Osvald Sirén coined the name for the painter, presumably Umbrian, by attributing common authorship of a painted crucifix now in the Treasury of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, two paintings of the same subject in Bologna, and the fragments The Mourning Madonna and The Mourning Saint John now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

[2] In 1929, Evelyn Sandberg-Vavalà attributed to the same artist the crucifix in the church of Santa Maria in Borgo in Bologna (now at the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Bologna) as well as three painted crucifixes in the Fornari collection at Fabriano,[3] the Pinacoteca of Faenza and the Museo Civico (now Collezioni Comunali d’Arte) in Bologna.

The anonymous painter probably trained in Assisi around 1255 – 1265, where he was likely influenced by the Master of Santa Chiara and the Master of Saint Francis who painted frescoes in the nave of the lower church of San Francesco.

He finally settled in Bologna, where he is known to have executed painted crucifixes but also a fresco in the church of Santo Stefano.