L'ombra della morte

Holman Hunt worked on this from 1870 to 1873, much of it during a second long trip to the Holy Land, because he wanted every detail to be right down to the local tools and light. It shows Christ not on the cross but as a young carpenter in a Nazareth workshop, pausing to stretch his arms after a day of sawing. As he does, the setting sun throws his shadow onto the wall behind, arms spread against a rack of tools, and the shape is unmistakably a man on a cross. His mother, seen from behind, has looked up from a box of the Magi's gifts and caught sight of it. Hunt, a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, insisted on painting the scene on the spot with almost archaeological care. The profits from showing it let him give the painting to the city of Manchester, where it still hangs.