Gero's Cross

The Crucifix commissioned by Arch Bishop Gero is one of the first life-sized wooden crucifixion's and has remained in considerably good condition noting it's location and medium. Many of the crucifix's prior to the Ottonian period did not show such a severe emotion of Christ. The Gero Cross was the first to show the distress in Christ's face, as well as his body language.
The distress in Christ's is complemented by the sad, stretched muscles in the rest of his body. In some crucifix before this one, Christ's body didn't seem to hang as much off the cross as it in Gero's cross. The weight is pulled from between his nailed hands and throughout his core, where it is resting on the pedestal at his feet. Where there once was a throned crown, there is now dripping blood. Different from "happy crosses" in earlier Ottonian crucifixes, Christ does not look joyful or youthful; Gero's cross is the more realistic representation of the Crucifixion.
Today's image of Christ is a lot like the one from Gero's Cross; Gero's cross laid the foundation for the image of Christ. Christ today is pictured more Middle Eastern with a sad expression when he is on the cross. Come to think of it, there isn't a representation in art when Christ is happy. Does this have something to do with his death? We know now that Christian story tells us Jesus died for all of our sins. Did artists depict him as unhappy because they interpreted his fate as something for him to be unhappy about? Christ's sad expression in other works of art may be unexplainable, but because his feet and hands are nailed to a cross, his sad expression in Gero's Cross is the most realistic of its time.