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This panel was probably a processional cross: mounted on a long pole it was carried in processions around the church.
The elaborate, cruciform picture field is formed of an elongated rectangular panel with five lobed extensions at the top and sides and an antependium with attached acanthus decoration. Most of the height of the painting is filled by the cross and the body of Christ, with blood running from his wounds down the shaft of the cross and spreading in rivulets over the rocky landscape below. At the foot of the cross kneel two figures in adoration of the crucified Christ: at the right is St Mary Magdalen in a long red robe, and at the left is a hermit, wearing a coarse brown tunic torn at the shoulder. Below them, emerging from a crevice in the rocky ground beneath the foot of the cross, is a bust-length figure of King David with a halo and a crown.
The attribution to Lorenzo Monaco is not universally acknowledged among scholars.
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