Christ Carrying the Cross

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Three Marys
.
Sebastiano del Piombo, about 1513-14

Christ Carrying the Cross on his way to

Golgotha being the site of the crucifixion outside Jerusalem. The actual route taken is defined by tradition as the Via Dolorosa
in Jerusalem, although the specific path of this route has varied over the centuries and continues to be the subject of debate.

Biblical references

Main article: Via Dolorosa
Jesus falls the second time from a 19th-century German Stations of the Cross
Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary, Raphael
, 1516–1517

The carrying of the cross is mentioned, without much detail, in all the canonical

stipes, which was permanently driven into the ground at Golgotha.[2]
However, in Christian imagery Jesus, and Simon, carry the complete cross—both patibulum and stipes.

Only Luke mentions the "women of Jerusalem", who were in later patristic writings and Christian art taken to include the

Il Spasimo, Bruegel's Vienna Procession (see below for both), and the London Jacopo Bassano, have the thieves' two crosses already set up at the place of execution in the distant background.[5]

Also of relevance is Matthew 16:24, with which St Francis of Assisi began his first Rule of 1221: "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me". St Francis also used to be led with a cord around his neck as a penitential exercise, the cord being a detail added to many depictions of the episode from two Old Testament passages. These are Isaiah 53:7: "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth" and Jeremiah 11:19 "I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter...", both of which were very frequently cited by medieval commentaries.[6] In medieval typology, Isaac carrying wood up the mountain for his sacrifice is the most common parallel for the episode, and often shown as a complementary scene; this scene is "Isaac Bearing the Faggots" (or "wood") in traditional art history terminology.[7]

In popular devotions

The fully elaborated traditional account of the episode is demonstrated in the Stations of the Cross, where it is divided into a number of incidents, which between them account for most sculptural depictions:[8]

  1. Pilate sentences Christ
  2. Jesus is given His cross
  3. Jesus falls the first time
  4. Jesus meets
    His Mother
  5. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
  6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
  7. Jesus falls the second time
  8. Jesus meets the daughters of Jerusalem
  9. Jesus falls the third time

Ten through fourteen cover the rest of the Passion.

It is also one of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the

Seven Sorrows of the Virgin. The procession is still re-enacted in a number of annual Good Friday processions in Catholic countries, some of which include actors playing the leading persons and a cross.[9]
On the Via Dolorosa such events occur all year round.

History of the depiction

Procession to Calvary, Pieter Bruegel the Elder
, 1564

Until around 1100, Simon of Cyrene was more often shown actually carrying the cross than Jesus, and from this time the number of other figures typically included in the scene increases. In Byzantine depictions, Jesus typically walks with his hands bound, and a soldier leading him holding the rope, as Simon carries the cross. In some early depictions, Jesus and Simon carry the cross together. In the later Middle Ages, probably influenced by

Crown of Thorns
, which he did not earlier.

Master of the Virgo inter Virgines, c. 1495

An early example of a type of devotional image showing Jesus alone is a small panel by

Entombment or Resurrection
on the right-hand wing.

From around 1500, the subject became used for single piece altarpieces in Italy, usually showing either the meeting with Veronica or the Swoon of the Virgin or spasimo, when the Virgin swoons, faints, or at least falls to her knees, both fairly recent and rather controversial introductions, without scriptural authority.[13]

Works

Individual works with articles include the following (apart from a large number of cycles featuring the scene):

Gallery

Notes

  1. ^ Schiller, 78-82
  2. ^ Andreas J. Köstenberger John 2004 Page 598 "... the patibulum (see commentary at 19:17) and compelled to carry his cross to the place of execution.13 Hence, ... Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates romanae 7.69; Tertullian, De pudicitia 22 (cited in Köstenberger 2002c: 194).
  3. ^ Schiller, 78–81
  4. ^ Zuffi, 283; See Schiller 81 for later exceptions, including one by Tintoretto
  5. ^ Penny, 8
  6. ^ Sawyer, 89; Israels, 423
  7. ^ Schiller, 80, 82
  8. ^ Schiller, 82
  9. ISBN 978-1-60413-100-0, google books
  10. ^ Schiller, 81
  11. ^ Schiller, 80-81
  12. ^ Brown etc., 102-103, 110-111
  13. ^ Penny, 8-10

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jesus Christ bearing the Cross.
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