CHRIST CARRYING THE CROSS, Flemish School, 16th Century

Flemish School, 16th Century

oil on panel
49 by 38 in.; 124.5 by 96.5 cm.

Provenance:
The composition is closely comparable with a work in the Diocesan Museum, Esztergom by Jan Sanders van Hemessen.1 The present work differs from it however in the background and in several details: in the Esztergom version, for example, Christ is straining against a rope pulled tightly around his neck by the hand of the figure lower right, whereas here the rope is gone and the figure, instead of grasping the rope, places his thumb between his fore- and index finger in a contemporary mocking gesture.

1. See M.J. Friedlander, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. XII, Leiden 1975, p. 109, cat. no. 192, reproduced plate 106.