On the left of the High Altar there is a 13th century Crucifix commissioned in the second half of the 1200s to be hung in the Presbytery of the second church. During the 19th century the Christ was repainted according to the canons of the period and by 1825 it was to be found above the side door of the left transept. Subsequently, probably during emergency restoration and consolidation of the Basilica’s foundations, carried out between 1902 and 1915, the wooden Crucifix was transferred from above the door of the left transept to above the door of the chapel of St. Peter. Today the piece appears to be missing the trilobed ends of the arms of the cross. Missing too are the other painted figures, as is part of Christ’s right leg. During the restoration, a splendid crucifix of Christ was found beneath the 19th century painting. The crucifix was painted in tempera by an artist of the 1200s, probably from an Umbrian School according to some critics. It outlines the figure of a man in the arms of death after having suffered atrociously. A bloodless corpse is hung on the cross: its colour is off-green. Recent research carried out by Clara Santini (1997) attributes this “impressive painted Crucifix […] to the beginning of the work of the so-called «Maestro della Cappella Dotto» of the chapel of the same name in the church of the Eremitani in Padua”.
