Jesus raises his eyes; a few drops of blood mark his brow.
Bible in art · John
Christ Carrying the Cross
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), Greek, Iráklion (Candia) 1541–1614 Toledo · ca. 1577–87
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Robert Lehman Collection, 1975; acc. 1975.1.145)
El Greco, born on Crete and settled in Toledo, painted this canvas around 1577–87, in his first years in Spain. The subject was much in demand, and he and his workshop painted many versions of it.
There is no road, crowd or soldiers — only Jesus, close up, against a stormy sky. He wears the crown of thorns and looks upward, his long fingers resting lightly on the heavy wooden cross that runs out of the top of the picture.
From the text
- “Carrying His own cross, He went out” (John 19:17)
- The crown of thorns the soldiers set on his head (John 19:2)
The artist’s own
- A single half-length figure with no other people, a picture made for private devotion
- A red robe and blue cloak, the colours painters usually gave Jesus
- A stormy grey-green sky
- Long, slender hands, typical of El Greco
Details
Looking up
Crown of thorns
Twisted thorny branches round his head.
On the wood
Long fingers rest lightly on the cross.
The other hand
His left hand holds the foot of the cross.
The cross
The cross is so big it runs out of the picture at the top.
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), Greek, Iráklion (Candia) 1541–1614 Toledo. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Robert Lehman Collection, 1975; acc. 1975.1.145) · Oil on canvas · Public Domain — The Met Open Access (CC0). The Met Collection API record: "isPublicDomain": true; The Met marks such works on its website "with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) icon".