The Preparation of the Cross with Resting Christ

No Gospel describes this moment. The image of Christ crowned with thorns, waiting while his cross is made ready, comes from a devotional tradition that appeared in northern Germany in the 1300s, usually as a lone figure for prayer. This panel sets that still figure in a busy place of execution. Christ sits on the beam of his own cross while a man in a red cap leans in and points at his face. On a ladder, a man in red striped hose hauls one of the two thieves up by a rope. The other thief sits as his hands are tied behind his back. Hammers, pincers and nails lie near skulls and bones. Far behind, the fainting Virgin is held up by the mourners. The Belvedere catalogues the panel as the work of a follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, painted in Austria around 1520.