Was there a transformation in the artistic depiction of the Crucifixion after the 12th century?

Was there a transformation in the artistic depiction of the Crucifixion after the 12th century?

Yes it seems to be the case.

Joe Townend explains it in parts thus:

Very early crucifixion scenes are rare. The earliest is a piece of Roman graffiti from around 200 AD, now on display at the Palatine Hill Museum in Rome. It is a slur scratched in plaster, depicting Christ as a crucified donkey worshipped by a local fool. Gems engraved by clandestine groups of heretical Christians are the only other known examples from the second and third centuries. Early church leaders knew the horrors of crucifixion and saw it as an unfit subject for art. Instead, they focused their devotion on images of triumph and resurrection.

It was in the Middle Ages that crucifixion scenes became widespread. European pilgrims to the Holy Land brought back small metal flasks used for carrying oil, and mass-produced souvenirs decorated with images of the crucifixion. At the same time, ivory reliefs featuring crucifixion scenes were being produced in Italy. Christianity had become the dominant religion in Europe and the cross was becoming a symbol of devotion.

In France, crucifixion scenes began to appear on Limoges enamel, a distinctive technique developed by goldsmiths in the Benedictine abbeys of central France during the 12th century. The technique was based on the ancient champlevé process of engraving shallow beds in copper. Compositions were mostly used for private prayer, and many were based on engravings from northern Europe.

Among the innovations of the Limoges workshops was the development of painted enamel from around 1470, which allowed for highly detailed figurative scenes. At first, these were high-status objects for high-status individuals – wealthy art collectors or members of the court – and featured mythological or secular imagery. Within a generation, however, many Limoges craftsmen had converted to become Huguenots and focused their attention on the crucifixion once again.

Painted enamel brought devotional scenes to life in vivid colour. Some even saw the process of firing the works as a reflection of the refining fires of purgatory. The compositions are often quite simple, highlighting the subtleties of the figures within them. In some, bystanders reach their hands towards the slumped figure of Christ.

In others, framed by the cruel geometry of the cross, the Virgin Mary and St John can do little but stand and pray. Background detail recedes in deep blues, greens and blacks as the blood-red pours from Christ’s side. Bold but never didactic, the Limoges crucifixions display humanity in its brutality and its tenderness.

The Art of the Crucifixion — A Brief History of the Crucified Christ in Western Art

The Gothic Art period saw a noticed development in artistic Crucifixion scenes.

In the Gothic period more elaborate narrative depictions developed, including many extra figures of Mary Magdalene, disciples, especially The Three Marys behind the Virgin Mary, soldiers xoften including an officer on a horse, and angels in the sky. The moment when Longinus the centurion pierces Christ with his spear (the "Holy Lance") is often shown, and the blood and water spurting from Christ's side is often caught in a chalice held by an angel. In larger images the other two crosses might return, but most often not. In some works donor portraits were included in the scene. Such depictions begin in the late 12th century, and become common where space allows in the 13th century.

Related scenes such as the Deposition of Christ, Entombment of Christ and Nailing of Christ to the Cross developed. In the Late Middle Ages, increasingly intense and realistic representations of suffering were shown, paired with increasingly grotesque and malicious depictions of Pontius Pilate and the allegedly murderous Jews, reflecting the development of highly emotional andachtsbilder subjects and devotional trends such as German mysticism; some, like the Throne of Mercy, Man of Sorrows and Pietà, related to the Crucifixion. The same trend affected the depiction of other figures, notably in the "Swoon of the Virgin", who is very commonly shown fainting in paintings of between 1300 and 1500, though this depiction was attacked by theologians in the 16th century, and became unusual. After typically more tranquil depictions during the Italian Renaissance—though not its Northern equivalent, which produced works such as the Isenheim Altarpiece—there was a return to intense emotionalism in the Baroque, in works such as Peter Paul Rubens's Elevation of the Cross.

The scene always formed part of a cycle of images of the Life of Christ after about 600 (though it is noticeably absent before) and usually in one of the Life of the Virgin; the presence of Saint John made it a common subject for altarpieces in churches dedicated to him. From the late Middle Ages various new contexts for images were devised, from such large scale monuments as the "calvaire" of Brittany and the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy to the thousands of small wayside shrines found in many parts of Catholic Europe, and the Stations of the Cross in the majority of Catholic churches. - Crucifixion in the arts