Giotto, Crucifixion, c.1350

"What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said to him, "Let Him be crucified!" Then the governor said, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they cried out all the more, saying, "Let Him be crucified!" ---Matthew 27

The evil applauds, and the good mourns.

“Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land." The story comes to a climax as all hope dies out, and justice is mocked, "Hail, King of the Jews!"now what? Fortunately, great stories always follow the similar pattern, Aragorn strikes back and sweeps the dark lord, Batman returns and saves Gotham, and why not Jesus? In fact, the extreme sadness and darkness of the Crucifixion adds more spice to the following plots: When God finally reveals and evil gets punished-"I told you, Jesus is the right guy. You picked the wrong side, and you are going to hell now."

No more jokes. Giotto painted the Crucifixion as one of a series of biblical stories on the wall of Arena Chapel. The cross vertically divides the painting into two balanced part, separates the Hole from the Evil. (Notice that there is also a divine figure with a halo among the evil soldiers. Research shows that Giotto uses the divine figure to stress the human side). Mary comes and touches Jesus's feet.

Jesus, as usual, is looking down at the good people. Angels with blurry legs hover around Jesus and forms a gentle curve. In addition, people's heads also form a line, which divides the work horizontally into half, which adds more balance to it. Altogether with vivid facial expressions and "Giotto-blue" background, the story of Crucifixion is well told.