"Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion" is a key precursor to Bacon's later work, and he sustained its formal and thematic preoccupations throughout his career.The triptych format, the placement of figures behind glass in heavily gilded frames, the open mouth, the use of painterly distortion, the Furies, and the theme of the Crucifixion were all to reappear in later works.