The Ascent to Calvary. The Bearing of the Cross

In the very foreground, close to us, Roman soldiers are dragging along Dismas and Gestas, the two thieves who are to be crucified alongside Jesus. They move along wind-ing paths up the mountain of Calvary, a place of execution outside of Jerusalem. Slightly further ahead, in the centre of the composition, Jesus has just collapsed under the weight of the great cross. In the background a teeming crowd of mounted Roman sol-diers brandishing lances and banners are moving onwards, disappearing behind a rocky outcrop. The entire scene is painted in a rapid, sketch-like manner in thin brown oil paint used as if it were watercolour. The pur-pose of this oil sketch was to capture and retain one idea of what a composition involving many figures might look like. It was one of several oil sketch-es executed in preparation for a large altarpiece painting.