Master of the Blue Crucifixes

The Master of the Blue Crucifixes was an Italian painter active around the middle of the thirteenth century, in either the region of Umbria or Emilia. His real name is unknown, and the label given to him by scholars comes from the body of work attributed to him. He matters because his surviving paintings help us understand how Italian panel painting developed in this period.

He is associated with the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, which places his activity near one of the most important artistic centres of medieval Italy. He may have worked as an assistant to Giunta Pisano, whose style his paintings resemble, although this connection remains a hypothesis.

A number of his works have survived, mainly processional crucifixes meant to be carried in religious parades. The name comes from these crucifixes together with his fondness for blue as a background colour, a feature that makes his hand comparatively easy to recognise. His legacy is chiefly documentary: his pieces shed light on the production of painted crucifixes in the thirteenth century and on the exchange of models among Italian workshops.