Crucifixion

No Gospel says Mary collapsed at the foot of the cross. John writes only that she stood there with other women and the disciple Jesus loved. Later texts added her fainting, and by the 15th century it had become one of the most common details in paintings of the Crucifixion. Here Mary sinks down in a dark green mantle, and John in red holds her up under the arms while women in white headcloths look on. Opposite stand an old bearded man, a man in a red cap and a soldier in dark plate armour and a white cloak. Behind the cross lies a green landscape with crags and a walled town. The Belvedere dates the oak panel around 1475 and gives it to the workshop of the Master of the Schotten Altarpiece, named after the high altar of Vienna's Scots' Abbey.