Christ Carrying the Cross

Of the four Gospels, only Luke tells this moment. On the road to Golgotha a crowd of women followed Christ, weeping and lamenting, and he turned to them and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and for your children. Painters of the road to Calvary more often chose Christ falling under the cross, or Veronica holding out her veil. Gentileschi took the words, the moment Christ turns back to the women.

He painted it in Rome around 1605 to 1607, when he was in his early forties and working in the city where he had made his name. The canvas later belonged to Cardinal Alessandro Albani, one of the great collectors of 18th-century Rome, before it came to Vienna.