Christ Carrying the Cross

The painting, characterized by an uncontrolled pathetism visible in the face of Christ, is part of a series of late Mantegnesque compositions, with an explicit pietistic charge, reinforced by the presence of the painted frame, which isolates the image even more in devotional contemplation. The painting is believed to be a creation of the narrow circle of Mantegna, but it shows a substantial graphic and material weakness that should exclude his direct intervention.