Signum Sanctae Crucis. Iconologia del Crocifisso nella lezione di Heinrich Pfeiffer S.J.

The paper starts from a recent conference (Signum Sanctae Crucis. Pathways of art and faith at the Diocesan Museum), organized by the Diocesan Museum of Mazara del Vallo (2-3 April 2011) on the occasion of the restoration and exhibition of the precious fifteenth-century wooden crucifix that for centuries has been kept at the San Michele Arcangelo Benedictine Monastery. The event involved some authoritative scholars on theology and Christian art and ended with the lectio magistralis by Heinrich Pfeiffer S.J. – a world-famous scholar and an emeritus professor of Iconology and History of Christian art at the Pontifical Gregorian University – on the theme of the imagery of the crucifix in the Middle Ages, with specific reference to the crucifix at the San Michele Monastery. The present note intends to examine in depth some central aspects of the talk by Father Pfeiffer and of the theological and historical-artistic debate linked to it.