Magnificent Stained Glass, Christ on the Cross

Depic­tion of Christ on the Cross; to his right the Vir­gin Mary and to his left Saint John, hold­ing the Gospel in his right hand (John 19:25 – 27).

The con­ven­tion­al cru­ci­fix­ion scene, com­posed of three fig­ures, is shown beneath a ribbed vault, rest­ing on lat­er­al columns and dec­o­rat­ed with grapes and vine leaves. The stained glass is crowned with the inscrip­tion ​“INRI” on the cross and flanked by the moon and the sun.

The Latin inscrip­tion locat­ed at the foot of the pan­el is the cen­tral accla­ma­tion of the ven­er­a­tion of the Cross in the Good Fri­day litur­gy:

Ecce lignum cru­cis, in quo salus mun­di pepen­dit.

Behold the wood of the Cross, on which the sal­va­tion of the world hung.
A com­pa­ra­ble stained glass pan­el can be found, among oth­er places, in the cathe­dral of Ver­den. Church win­dow in lead­ed con­struc­tion, 15^th cen­tu­ry, with lat­er addi­tions and restora­tions from sub­se­quent centuries