CRUCIFIX (Lat. crud fixus, fastened to the cross, from crux. cross + /igen., to fasten f. A cross with the effigy of Christ affixed to it. It must be distinguished. as an instrument of de votion and liturgical use, from the pictorial or other representations of the scene of the Cruci fixion (q.v.). The cross ( q.v.). at first used for devotional and symbolic purposes in its simplest form, came first to be decorated with the symbolic sacrificial lamb (see CIIRIST IN ART), with the addition sometimes of the me dallion bust of Christ, as in the Vatican cross. Perhaps the earliest crucifixes were small de votional objects which contained portions of the supposed true cross, such as that of Mount Athos, or were pictorial crosses, like that of Queen Theodolinda at Alonza (sixth century). During the Carlovingian Age the crucifix came into somewhat more general use in the West, but, having been opposed in the East shortly after its introduction by the image-hating Iconoclasts (eighth century), it obtained a foothold there not as a plastic image. but in the form of a pictured Crucifixion. The manner in which the figure of Christ was represented on the cruci fix is the same as that in pictures of the Cruci fixion. During the Itomnanesque and Gothic periods there Was an increasing number of large crucifixes, in some of which the figure was al most or wholly life-size. These were mainly of four classes—tie stationary altar crucifix, that stood in the centre of the altar or at the entrance to the choir, sometimes with accompanying statues of the Virgin and Saint John (e.g. at Weeliselburg. Saxony, thirteenth century) ; the road crucifix, at cross-roads, or to mark certain spots for devotion; the station crucifix, which often crowns a hall at the end of a line of devo tional stations (q.v.) known as the Way of the
Cross; the processional crucifix, usually smaller and of metal• carried in religious processions. All such (•rucits became very muncrous from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, and were sometimes carved by the greatest sculptors, as in the ease of Brunellesehi's crucifix in Santa Alaria Novella, and Donatello's, also in Florence.
A envious compromise between a picture of the Crucifixion and a crucifix is a class of represen tations in which the figure of Christ is painted on a panel cut in the shape of a cross. A very early instance is in the Cathedral of Spoleto. Others by the Berling,hieri. INIarpheritone, and other early painters (thirteenth century) exist at Lucca, Pisa. and Florence. The plastic cruci fix was more popular in northern Europe than in Daly before the fifteenth century, and was often executed in wood, while for smaller examples ivory and metals were most used. The realistic schools of North Italy, however. during the fif teenth and sixteenth centuries, gloried in realis tic crucifixes of painted wood and terra-cotta, especially the artists. of Alodena. The most im pressive are the large station crucifixes, such as that of the Sacro Alonte at Varallo. Consult: Carus, Crucifix," in The Open Court, vol. Niii. (Chicago, 1S99) Stocklmuer, ochichtc des firm:es 1820).