Few medieval images are as iconic, or as challenging, as the life-sized sculptural crucifixes that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire at the end of the tenth century. Striking at the fundamental mysteries of Christianity ? the idea of a God made flesh, who died on the Cross and was resurrected after three days ? these objects were made to attract attention and inspire veneration, and they exist in uneasy tension with medieval anxieties about idolatry and the cult of images. This volume presents new research on the Boston Crucifix, the earliest medieval crucifix in North America and one of the most significant examples of the genre, in dialogue with new directions in this field as a whole. Essays on the history, theology, style, condition, and provenance of early wood crucifixes are presented here together for the first time in a format that is intended as a major scholarly resource, but will also prove accessible to students and non-specialists who are curious about the origins of monumental crucifixes in the High Middle Ages. Shirin Fozi (PhD Harvard University) is assistant professor of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. Gerhard Lutz (PhD Technische Universität, Berlin) is associate director and curator at the Dommuseum Hildesheim. The editors have invited essays from internationally recognized authors who are active on both sides of the Atlantic, taking special care to include the perspectives of conservators, curators, and other scholars of medieval art. Table of Contents Foreword Marietta Cambareri IntroductionPART ONE: The Boston Crucifix at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Crucifix from the Fuld Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: A Masterpiece of late Ottonian Sculpture Gerhard Lutz The Boston Corpus: Technical Examination at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Abigail Hykin and Richard Newman The Boston Crucifix in the Context of Early Wood Sculpture: Technical Observations Klaus Endemann Harry Fuld, Georg Swarzenski, and the Modern History of a Medieval Crucifix Shirin Fozi PART TWO: The Technical Study of Early Wood Crucifixes The Bavarian Context of the Boston Crucifix: Origins and Chronology Manuela Beer The Debate on Dating the Crucifixes at Schaftlach, Enghausen, and Schlehdorf Matthias Weniger Wood Carving Techniques in Early Monumental Sculpture Klaus Endemann PART THREE: Case Studies The Gero Cross in Cologne Cathedral Rolf Lauer In Memory of Duke Otto of Swabia: The Crucifix of Aschaffenburg Klaus Gereon Beuckers and Anna Pawlik The Gerresheim Crucifix: New Conclusions on the Working Techniques of an Ottonian Sculpture Marc Peez The Crucifix Torso from St Georg in Cologne Manuela Beer A Tyrolean Crucifix at The Cloisters Charles T. Little The Cloisters? Romanesque Crucifix from Northern Spain: A Reconstruction and Interpretation Michele Marincola The Lavaudieu Corpus at The Cloisters Lucretia Kargère PART FOUR: Audience and Experience ?Not to nature, but to miracles?: The Attitude towards Images in Prudentius of Troyes?s Sermo de vita Maurae William J. Diebold The Cross and the Monumental Crucifix Beatrice Kitzinger The Crucifix from Ringelheim and Bernward of Hildesheim: Sculpture and Veneration in the Time around 1000 Gerhard Lutz The Image of the Dead Christ on the Cross in the Ottonian Era: The Artistic and Theological Problems of Sculptural Crucifixes Rainer Kahsnitz EPILOGUE The Strangeness of Crucifixes Jacqueline E. Jung