Moving Movements. Animated Crucifixes and the Faithful in Fourteenth-Century Central Italy

This article analyses two examples of crucifixes used in Italy (Umbria and Marche) between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The first example concerns poly-material crucifixes, entirely covered in leather, used as a substitute for the actor during the schiavellatione devotion, performed by the Confraternita dei Battuti in both Perugia and Foligno. I will try to demonstrate how their striking resemblance to a real human body was such that they often became the object of a 'physicalist' cult, condemned by the Church. The second example concerns the liturgical use of those wooden crucifixes equipped with a folding mechanism that prevents the arms from adhering completely to the sides, allowing only partial folding. My hypothesis is that their iconography refers to the Italian imago pietatis, giving them a ‘eucharistic’ value. When used for the rite of kissing on Good Friday, they were an ‘offered body’ (almost a symbolic communion), thus establishing an extraordinarily effective synesthetic relationship with the faithful.