A Guest at the Palace | “Christ on the Cross” by Antoon van Dyck

15 May — 08 September 2025
Palazzo Cini. La Galleria, Venezia

Antoon van Dyck, Cristo Crocifisso, 1627, oil on canvas, 124x93 cm, National Museums of Genoa – Royal Palace.

The Guest at the Palace initiative, promoted by the Art History Institute of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, was created through collaborations with some of the most prestigious Italian and international museum institutions. Conceived to temporarily enrich the museum holdings of Galleria di Palazzo Cini, the project features the exhibition of particularly important artworks granted on extraordinary loan and hosted for several months in the historic residence of Vittorio Cini, which houses the masterpieces of his remarkable art collection.

The exhibition returns to the Galleria di Palazzo Cini with a new distinguished guest: Antoon Van Dyck’s Crucified Christ (Antwerp, 22 March 1599 – London, 9 December 1641), a masterpiece from the early mature period of the celebrated Antwerp master, which will be on display to the public at the Gallery – the elegant residence on the Grand Canal showcasing the finest works from Vittorio Cini’s art collection – from 14 May to 8 September 2025.

The work, on loan as part of an exchange involving a pair of paintings from Ferrara in the Palazzo Cini collection for the exhibition ‘Genoa and St George’ to be held at the Royal Palace in Genoa in the autumn of 2025, will enter into a visual and, ideally, dialogic relationship with the Gallery’s other magnificent pieces, such as the evocative Crosses by the Primitive Masters in the exquisite gold-ground section.

Christ on the Cross

A masterpiece of extraordinary lyrical intensity, the Crucified Christ by the Flemish painter Antoon van Dyck stands out amongst the works in the distinguished collection of the Royal Palace of the National Museums of Genoa. A work of sublime grandeur, it has been recognised by critics as one of the most prestigious examples of the Italian output of the celebrated Antwerp master.

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At the centre of the canvas stands the vigorous body of Christ nailed to the cross, silhouetted against a gloomy sky thick with livid clouds, barely broken by flashes of blinding light, softened by delicate pinkish streaks. A voluminous, almost cumbersome, white drape, clearly reminiscent of Rubens, covers his waist, billowing sinuously in the wind and emphasising the still-vivid figure of Christ as he turns his gaze, intense and sorrowful, towards the sky. He is already glorious, despite the copious blood flowing from his wrists and from his head crowned with sharp thorns, slightly staining the whiteness of the cloth: above his slightly reclined head, in fact, a halo of luminous rays emerges, acting almost as a counterpoint to the hint of a solar eclipse painted in the top left, as recounted in the textual source of Scripture.

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The rugged landscape of Golgotha surrounding the cross seems to amplify the tragic dimension of the depiction, heightened by the presence of Adam’s skull at the foot of the cross, the epitome of human fragility.

Opening Hours and Admission

Open daily from 11am to 7pm (last admission at 6.15pm). Closed on Tuesdays.

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On Wednesday 14 May at 5.00 pm, the work will also be the focus of a special edition of the Conversazioni d’Arte, where it will be presented by Mari Pietrogiovanna, a specialist in Flemish and Dutch art and lecturer at the University of Padua.

All editions

May 24 – July 21, 2014

Portrait of a Young Man with a Lute by Agnolo Bronzino

September 5 – November 2, 2014

Adoration of the Shepherds by Lorenzo Lotto

June 17 – September 28, 2015

The Madonna of Pontassieve by Beato Angelico

September 19 – November 15, 2015

Capriccio with a Small Square by Francesco Guardi

April 8 – June 6, 2016

Saint Mark by Andrea Mantegna

May 28 – November 1, 2021