Currently not on view
Bearing of the Cross,
ca. 1475–80
Martin Schongauer, German, ca. 1430–1491
x1951-120
Schongauer’s innovative depictions of light, shade, texture, and volume greatly influenced the young Albrecht Dürer’s graphic work. Considered Schongauer’s masterpiece, this narrative scene of the Road to Calvary shows Christ’s face in the form in which it was transferred, miraculously, to the veil offered to him by Saint Veronica. This icon, based on the veil (now a relic housed at Saint Peter’s, Rome), is called a sudarium and can be seen in Dürer’s engraving (below), where it is held by two angels. The dramatic tension in Schongauer’s composition derives from the contrast between Christ’s calm and direct gaze, as he bears the weight of the heavy cross, and the averted eyes of his agitated tormenters.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Bearing of the Cross
Dates
ca. 1475–80
Maker
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
plate (sheet trimmed to plate): 28.9 × 43.2 cm (11 3/8 × 17 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund
Object Number
x1951-120
Place Made
Europe, Germany
Inscription
Monogram, lower center: M [cross] S
Marks/Labels/Seals
Collector Fürst Liechtenstein's stamp, verso lower left: (Lugt 4398)
Reference Numbers
Bartsch 128.21; Hollstein 9; Lehrs 69.9
Type
Materials
Techniques
Subject
-
Adam vom Bartsch, "Volume 6," Le peintre graveur ... (Vienne: J. V. Degen, 1803-05).
, no. 15, p. 126 - Robert A. Koch, "Martin Schongauer's 'Christ Bearing the Cross'", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 14, no. 2 (1955): 22–30., fig. 1, p. 24 (illus.)
- Robert A. Koch, "A Gothic sculpture of the Ascending Christ", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 19, no. 1 (1960): p. 37-43., p. 38
- Charles Ilsley Minott, "Albrecht Dürer: The Early Graphic Works" Record of the Art Museum 30, no. 2 (1971): 7-27, p. 21, no. 34, p. 53 (illus.)
- "Catalogue of the Exhibition" and "Plates," Record of the Art Musuem 30, no. 2 (1971): 29-60, p. 32, no. 34, p. 53 (illus.)
-
F.W.H. Hollstein, “Schongauer,” German engravings, etchings, and woodcuts, ca. 1400-1700 (Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1999).
, no. 25
