Circle of Giovanni Bellini (Venice, about 1431-1436 - 1516, Venice)
Christ Carrying the Cross, about 1505-1510
Oil and tempera on poplar panel , 49.5 x 38.5 cm (19 1/2 x 15 3/16 in.)
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This oil and tempera painting on a wood panel is a close up image of Jesus Christ carrying a large wooden cross on the way to his death by crucifixion. The upper torso and head of Christ, as well as parts of his left arm and hand and of the vertical bar of the cross, take up most of the left half of the painting. He has slightly tan skin. Christ is shown moving forward and toward your left, but his brown eyes and mournful gaze are turned directly toward you. He wears a simple white garment that is open around the neck. His slightly stringy reddish-brown hair is parted in the middle and falls to his shoulders, and he has a beard and a mustache. On his head is a crown of thorns. Two large tears drop from his left eye, and his right eye also appears moist. He stoops slightly under the weight of the thick-timbered cross, which is perched and tilted upward over his right shoulder. There is some gray material between his back and the cross, and there is an armband or strap extending from the gray material over his left bicep at the bottom center of the painting. The entire cross is not visible, but the area where the vertical and horizontal pieces of the cross intersect creates a large triangle occupying the upper right third of the painting. The lighting is bright and the wood grain of the warm-toned cross is very visible, although Christ casts some shadow on the cross. There are small dark spaces in a few areas: in the background above Christ’s head, in the narrow gaps between Christ’s body and the cross, and in a tiny triangle at the top right of the painting, above the junction of the vertical bar of the cross and the left side of the crossbar. The painting has a grayish wood frame with a simple leafy design repeated in the middle of each of the four sides.
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Commentary
In the late fifteenth century, new types of private devotional pictures emerged in Italy. This painting is innovative in its depiction of strong emotion to aid prayer and meditation. The subject has been excerpted from narrative representations of Christ carrying the cross to Mount Calvary. However, lacking distracting details or any indication of setting, this image focuses instead on the tear-streaked face of Christ, who stares out at us melancholically, as well as the knotty wood cross over which he casts a shadow. It is an intimate and intensely personal depiction of a suffering more emotional than physical. This type of dramatic close-up was perfected by Giovanni Bellini, who was influenced by devotional images derived from the work of Leonardo da Vinci. This work is in turn based on a composition by Bellini (recorded in a painting in the Toledo Art Museum), and was made by a close follower of the artist, perhaps Vincenzo Catena (ca. 1470–1531).
When Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased the painting in 1896, it was attributed to Giorgione, who was also pupil of Bellini and documented as a colleague of Catena. Even at that time, Gardner was unsure about its authorship, although the painting’s strong quality and stirring piety led her to buy it. Bernard Berenson was frankly surprised that Gardner wanted such a strongly religious work. According to Morris Carter, the first director of the museum, the painting was Mrs. Gardner’s favorite, and she often placed a vase of violets in front of it, a tradition maintained by the museum.
Source: Alan Chong, "Christ Carrying the Cross," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 99.
When Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased the painting in 1896, it was attributed to Giorgione, who was also pupil of Bellini and documented as a colleague of Catena. Even at that time, Gardner was unsure about its authorship, although the painting’s strong quality and stirring piety led her to buy it. Bernard Berenson was frankly surprised that Gardner wanted such a strongly religious work. According to Morris Carter, the first director of the museum, the painting was Mrs. Gardner’s favorite, and she often placed a vase of violets in front of it, a tradition maintained by the museum.
Source: Alan Chong, "Christ Carrying the Cross," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 99.