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| Jesus Carries the Cross From Pèlerinage de Jésus-Christ by Guillaume de Digulleville French (Rennes), 1425-1450 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Francais 376, fol. 217v |
“So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.”
John 19:16-18
The Second Station of the Cross picks up from the first, the
Condemnation of Jesus. After Pilate gave
his judgment “they took Jesus”, laid the cross upon Him and began the death
march to the place of execution, outside the walls of Jerusalem.
John is the only one of the four evangelists
to tell us about the beginning of this procession of the condemned men , that
is Jesus and the two thieves, from the administrative building at which Pilate
had condemned Him to Golgotha, what we call Calvary. And he doesn’t tell us much more than that
Jesus began by carrying the cross himself.
Other evangelists tell us about things that happened along the way, as
we will see in future essays.
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| Jesus Carries the Cross Ivory panels from a casket Late Roman. 420-430 London, British Museum |
One of the earliest images of Jesus carrying the cross comes
from the fifth century. It is one of
several scenes from an ivory casket now in the British Museum and shows Jesus
leaving the judgment seat of Pilate, carrying the cross and walking toward
Peter, who is crouched before a small fire, with the maid servant who is
accusing him of being a disciple and a crowing rooster. Thus it conflates several different portions
of the Gospel narratives into one compact image.
Later images focused more narrowly on the actual carrying of
the cross. Jesus is usually with one or two
onlookers, often soldiers.
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| Capital, Jesus Carries the Cross French, 1101-1200 Issoire, Church of Saint Austremoine |
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| Capital, Jesus Carries the Cross French, 1151-1200 Saint-Nectaire, Church of Saint-Nectaire |
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| Jesus Carries the Cross From Picture Bible French (St. Omer, Benedictine Abbey of St. Bertin), c. 1190-1200 The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek MS KB 76 F 5, fol. 20v
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Then, beginning at the dawn of the Renaissance, in the fourteenth century, the number of other figures begins to increase in some images, though not in all.
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| Giotto, Jesus Carries the Cross Italian, 1304-1306 Padua, Arena/Scrovegni Chapel
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This becomes
a veritable “cast of thousands” in the immensely detailed painting by Pieter
Brueghel the Elder now in Vienna. Here
the actual scene of Jesus carrying the cross is relegated to the middle
distance and is seen as taking place in a crowded and basically uncaring, even unconscious
world.
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| Pieter Brueghel Elder, Jesus Carrying the Cross Flemish, 1564 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum |
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| Louis de Caulery, Jesus Carries the Cross French, 1590-1625 Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts |
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Jan van Orley, Jesus Carries the Cross (tapestry)
Flemish, c. 1750
Bruges, Church of Sankt Salvator
|
From about the end of the fifteenth century an alternate image type began to appear. This was less a narrative than an intimate devotional image, meant to inspire contemplation in the viewer. It confronts us with a “close up” image of Jesus alone, bearing the cross and showing in His face the impact of His sufferings and a calm acceptance of them.
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| Alvise Vivarini, Jesus Carrying the Cross Italian, No Date (died in 1503) Venice, Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo |
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| Hieronymous Bosch, Jesus Carrying the Cross Dutch, 1510-1515 Ghent, Museum vor Schone Kunsten |
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| Sebastiano del Piombo, Jesus Carrying the Cross Italian, c. 1516 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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| Jan Gossart, Jesus Carrying the Cross Flemish, c.1520-1525 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Vincenzo Catena, Jesus Carrying the Cross Italian, 1520s Vienna, Liechenstein Museum |
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| Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola, Jesus Carrying the Cross Italian, 1520-1526 Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais
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| Jan van Hemessen, Jesus Carrying the Cross Flemish, 1553 Esztergom, Christian Museum |
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Michiel Coxie, Jesus Carrying the Cross Flemish, c.1555 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
This devotional image was explored twice by two of the greatest painters of the late sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries: Titian and El Greco.
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| Titian, Jesus Carrying the Cross Italian, c.1565 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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| Titian, Jesus Carrying the Cross Italian, 1570-1575 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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| El Greco, Jesus Carrying the Cross Greco-Spanish, c. 1600-1605 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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| Luca Giordano, Jesus Carrying the Cross Italian, c.1697 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
However, the narrative painting never lost its power and
continued on into the modern era.
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James Tissot, Jesus Carries the Cross From The Life of Christ series French, 1886-1894 New York, Brooklyn Museum |
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| Eric Gill, Jesus Receives His Cross From Stations of the Cross English, 1913-1918 London, Westminster Cathedral |
© M. Duffy, 2016
Scripture texts in this
work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition© 2010,
1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are
used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the
New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing
from the copyright owner.
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