Crucifixion Diptych (van der Weyden) The painting's provenance prior to the mid-19th century is unknown. Its extreme starkness has led art historians to theorize that it was created as a devotional work, possibly for a Carthusian monastery. It is not known if the panels comprised a self-contained diptych, two-thirds of a triptych, or originally were a single panel. Some art historians have mentioned that the work seems unbalanced overall and lacking symmetry (which might indicate a missing panel or panels). Recent scholarship proposes that the panels functioned as the outer shutters of a carved altarpiece. The background to the panels is unknown. Scholars have theorized
Saint Peter Martyr Altarpiece testimony) also mention a second altarpiece by the artist in the same church, also dating to 1476, now known as the "Saint Peter Martyr Altarpiece"'. It is therefore theorised that the altarpieces were both dismantled during rebuilding of the church in 1776, then sold to the antiquarian Grossi who sold all the panels separately and grouped some of them into the altarpiece that Cardinal Zelada bought from him. Federico Zeri and Rodolfo Pallucchini then joined the altarpieces together, initially referring to the first (the high altarpiece), the "Pietà" in the Metropolitan Museum, and then to the "Madonna" in the Museum