The Way to Calvary
Jacopo Bassanoabout 1544-5
The National Gallery, London
London, United Kingdom
While carrying his cross, Christ stumbles and falls. One of Christ’s executioners raises a fist to strike him and another pulls him by a rope around his waist. In the distance is Calvary, the barren hill with two crosses where Christ will be crucified. The Virgin follows her son and wipes her tear-soaked cheek. Saint Veronica holds out her veil to Christ, on which the image of his face will become miraculously imprinted.
This painting may have been an altarpiece for a chapel dedicated to Saint Veronica. Her name is related to the Latin phrase vera ikon, which means ‘true image’. Veronica’s veil, the Sudarium, became a relic venerated as a true picture of Christ.
The composition was inspired by an engraving after Raphael (Prado, Madrid) and by a woodcut from the Small Passion by the German artist Dürer. A dense arrangement of figures expressing strong emotion is typical of Bassano’s mature works -– those made once he had fully developed his style and technique.
Text: © The National Gallery, London
- Title: The Way to Calvary
- Creator: Jacopo Bassano
- Date Created: about 1544-5
- Physical Dimensions: 145.3 x 132.5 cm
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- School: Italian (Venetian)
- More Info: Explore the National Gallery’s paintings online
- Inventory number: NG6490
- Artist Dates: active about 1535; died 1592
- Artist Biography: Jacopo dal Ponte, called Bassano, is the most famous of a family of painters from Bassano in the Veneto. He was mainly active also in Venice and the Veneto. Bassano developed a rustic, realistic and expressive style indebted to prints by Dürer, and was a pioneer in Italy of night scenes. Jacopo Bassano was probably first trained by his father, Francesco, and then in Venice with Bonifazio Veronese. His earliest known works, produced in Bassano, date from the later 1530s. Bassano was grounded in Venetian painting, particularly in the work of Titian and Lotto. In addition to the influence of Northern prints, his expressive style was indebted, from about 1540, to the work of Raphael and Parmigianino.
- Acquisition Credit: Bought with a contribution from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, 1984
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