Multimedia in the Middle Ages

This unusual piece – part painting, part sculpture – may come entirely from a carver. That would explain the quality of the heads and the plasticity of the painted figures. When looked at in passing, the carved heads seem to move back and forth. This also fits the symmetrical arrangement of the banderoles around Christ, who has just commended his mother and his favourite disciple to one another: »Woman, behold thy son,« and »John, behold thy mother« (John 19, 25–27). Mediaeval reports often tell of miracles in which paintings of the Crucified Jesus or the Virgin Mary spoke and made gestures that extended out into the viewer’s own physical world. This »multimedia« work simulates just such a vision.