ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the possible reasons for the entry of the Byzantine patiens crucifix into Europe and briefly mention its influence on the form of the new Gothic patiens crucifix after 1200. The crucifix is the only non-imported one in Denmark with a Byzantine footrest in the shape of a board. Most important is the embossed crucifix from Tirstrup Church in Eastern Jutland, now in the National Museum in Copenhagen. On the other hand a crucifix from Bjerning Church certainly comes from the chancel arch, as it belonged to a choir screen that has been dated dendrochronologically to c.1220. The last wooden crucifix to be presented is in Vester Torup, where only the corpus survived from the Central Middle Ages, a figure no less than 186 cm tall. The growing realism of the Christ would have been linked with the age's theological emotionalization of the relationship with God, as most clearly witnessed in the writings of Saint Bernard.
