The Carrying of the Cross

The cross in this panel is a tree. Frueauf painted it as a trimmed trunk in grey bark, the sawn end showing pale pink rings, and it cuts across the whole picture on a long diagonal. Christ has sunk to the stony ground beneath it, his pale robe pooling around him, one hand still on the wood. A man in a dark green coat bends over him with a staff, and a man in yellow holds the rope tied round his waist. Behind them the Virgin has fainted into the arms of John and the holy women, her eyes shut, her hands clasped. Lances and a raised steel gauntlet rise against the gold. Low at the edge, a man in a green cap has taken hold of the foot of the cross, most likely Simon of Cyrene, the passer-by the soldiers made carry it.