By Kind Permission of Lancaster University Library
By Kind Permission of Lancaster University Library
Ruskin presumably has in mind the painting by Angelico, Deposition from the Cross, the Santa Trinita Altarpiece (see Pope-Hennessy, Fra Angelico, p. 210), formerly in the Church of Santa Trinità in Florence, then in the Accademia Gallery, Florence, before being moved to the Museum of San Marco in Florence. The foreground of all Angelico's Crucifixions is bare rock, an image of death, and so it seems unlikely that Ruskin has in mind any of these. The pictures of the crucifixion of Cosmas and Damian do have flowers in the foreground, but it seems unlikely that Ruskin would have referred to any crucifixion other than that of Christ simply as a Crucifixion. In any case the attribution to Angelico of the Cosmas and Damian picture formerly in the Capella San Luca of the Annunziata Church in Florence seems not to have been made at the time Ruskin was writing. Ruskin refers again to a picture he calls the Crucifixion at Works, 4.326, and it may that it is the same picture he has in mind there.
For a different view of the iconography of flowers in Angelico see Didi-Huberman, translated Todd, Fra Angelico Dissemblance and Figuration, p. 159-164.
Fra Angelico c.1400-55
The Deposition from the Cross c.1443
on panel, 176x185cm
Collection: Museo di San Marco, Florence