The Road to Calvary, unknown maker from Flanders

Exhibition Label:
"Giorgio Vasari and Court Culture in Late Renaissance Italy," Sep-2012, Sally Cornelison and Susan Earle
Little is known about the history or function of this small alabaster panel. Its drama and iconography, however, bear strong ties to the Northern European prints seen elsewhere in the exhibition. In this sculpture, the figure of Christ carrying his cross is led by a soldier, who holds the rope binding Christ and is followed by two other soldiers, one of whom blows a horn. The interaction between Christ and the soldier leading him to Calvary echoes the images of the same scene from Dürer’s Large and Small Passions, though in this sculpted image, unlike in the prints, Veronica and her veil are lost in the crowd. Some elements of the scene are carved in higher relief, but the majority of the sculpted figures remains relatively close to the surface of the stone. The terrain onto which Christ has fallen is especially rocky and unforgiving.