The Procession to Calvary

Around 1504 and 1505 Leonardo da Vinci was at work in Florence on a huge battle scene for the council hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Battle of Anghiari. He never finished it, and the young painter from Urbino evidently studied what he saw. The National Gallery points to the turbaned rider and the rearing white horse behind him in this little panel as borrowings from Leonardo's design. It comes from the base of an altarpiece painted for the convent of Sant'Antonio da Padova in Perugia. Christ bends under the cross and looks out at us, helped by Simon of Cyrene and escorted by soldiers. Further back the Virgin is held up by the holy women, while Saint John wrings his hands. Several figures glance back over their shoulders at the group that follows, and that is how the three parts of the procession are tied together along the strip.