School of ANTHONY VAN DYCK (British, 1599-1641). The Road to Calvary, 17th century. Oil on canvas. 76-1/2 x 59 inches (1...

Description

School of ANTHONY VAN DYCK (British, 1599-1641)
The Road to Calvary, 17th century
Oil on canvas
76-1/2 x 59 inches (194.3 x 149.9 cm)

PROVENANCE:
Private European collection;
Private collection, New York.

Although this seventeenth-century painting is partly based on Van Dyck's Christ Carrying the Cross in Sint-Pauluskerk, Antwerp, the hand of Van Dyck's tutor Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is visible in the animated composition and the muscular figures. The play of the diagonal lines and the twisted bodies closely resemble those of his Raising of the Cross in the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp.

This picture is a representation of the Road to Calvary when Christ ascends the hill of Golgotha where he will be crucified. Christ, exhausted from the mocking and torture, falls to the ground from the weight of the cross. According to the gospels, Simon the Cyrenian was compelled to help him bear the cross and is presumably the elderly man in red. The bare-chested men above and below him probably represent the repentant and the rebellious thieves who will be crucified on either side of Christ. The figure of the suffering Christ is placed at the center of the composition and his face is turned towards the viewer. According to the earlier pictorial traditions of the 14th and 15th centuries, Christ was usually depicted as victorious, walking upright without difficulty, while in later centuries, as in the present image, the Christus patiens is favored over the Christus triumphans.


More information about ANTHONY VAN DYCK. See also: Dyck, Anthony van, Vandyke, Anthony, Dijk, Anthony van, Anthony van Dyck, Artist.

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