Christ on the Cross: The Boston Crucifix and the Rise of Monumental Wood Sculpture, 970-1200

Few medieval images are as iconic, or as challenging, as the life-sized sculptural crucifixes that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire at the end of the tenth century. Striking at the fundamental mysteries of Christianity–the idea of a God made flesh, who died on the Cross and was resurrected after three days–these objects were made to attract attention and inspire veneration, and they exist in uneasy tension with medieval anxieties about idolatry and the cult of images. This volume presents new research on the Boston Crucifix, the earliest medieval crucifix in North America and one of the most significant examples of the genre, in dialogue with new directions in this field as a whole. Essays on the history, theology, style, condition, and provenance of early wood crucifixes are presented here together for the first time in a format that is intended as a major scholarly resource, but will also prove accessible to students and non-specialists who are curious about the origins of monumental crucifixes in the High Middle Ages.