The bottom half of the painting is crowded with figures, all symbolically arranged to the left and the right of Christ.

There is a sharp contrast to those on the right, which includes Roman soldiers who are avoiding his gaze and the Impenitent thief, depicted as bald and bloated.

Cranach was the court painter to the electors of Saxony in Wittenberg, an area in the heart of the emerging Protestant faith.

His patrons were powerful supporters of Martin Luther, and Cranach used his art as a symbol of the new faith.

The provenance of Crucifixion is ambiguous, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art is attempting to learn where the painting originated.