The sorrowful Christ in the center of the composition is like an island swallowed up by the loud pressing of the evil crowd. Each face seems to represent a different type of inner ugliness – pride, a love of cruelty, foolishness and coarseness, mockery, sneakiness, and hardness of heart, illustrated by their specific exaggerated features and expressions.īosh (or perhaps a follower, attribution of this work is debated) is showing the inner hidden reality here, as he does so often in his work. It takes on a nightmarish, surreal quality.
There is such a perfect balance of attraction and revulsion in this painting. As a work of art, it is beautiful because of the contrast of dark and light, rich reds and blues, and the rhythm and variety in the repetition of the faces and the movement in the groupings with faces looking in different directions, cut across by the striking diagonal of the cross. The forms are well-painted and modeled and feel three-dimensional. But it is undoubtedly a painting of the ugliness of humanity. They brought him to the place called Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, “The place of a skull.” Mark 15:20-22 They compelled one passing by, coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them that he might bear his cross. When they had mocked him, they took the purple cloak off him, and put his own garments on him.
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