''Christ Carrying the Cross'' is a painting attributed to a follower of

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oa ...

. It was painted in the early 16th century, presumably between 1500 and 1535. The work is housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

, Belgium. The painting is notable for its use of

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...

to provide grotesque-looking faces surrounding Jesus.

History

The work was bought by the

Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent The Museum of Fine Arts ( nl, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, MSK) an art museum in Ghent, Belgium, is situated at the East side of the Citadelpark (near the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst). The museum's collection consists of some 9000 artworks ...

in 1902, and was restored in 1956–1957. As for all Bosch related works, the dating is uncertain, although most art historians assigned it to his late career. The catalogue of the Bosch exhibition held in Rotterdam in 2001 assigned it 1510–1535, attributing the execution to an imitator. According to one of the authors, Bernard Vermet, that it is not as typical for Bosch is generally accepted and he finds it hard to believe that it was painted by the same painter as the '' Christ Crowned with Thorns'' in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Moreover, the colours remind him of the Mannerists of the 1530s and he relates the work to the Triptych of the Passion in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

and the ''Christ Before Pilate'' in

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

, works that were definitely painted after the death of Bosch. Since then the rejection has been accepted by Stephan Fischer and disputed by Fritz Koreny. In October 2015 the Bosch Research and Conservation Project, that is doing technical research on most of Bosch's paintings since 2007, confirmed they reject the attribution to Bosch as well and consider it to be made by a follower.Twee beroemde werken toch niet van Jeroen Bosch
NOS, 31 oktober 2015

Description

The work depicts Jesus carrying the cross above a dark background, surrounded by numerous heads, most of which are characterized with grotesque features. There are a total of eighteen portraits, plus one on Veronica's veil. Jesus has a woeful expression, His eyes are closed and the head is reclinating. In the bottom right corner is the impenitent thief, who sneers against three men who are mocking him. The penitent thief is at top right: he is portrayed with very pale skin, while being confessed by a horribly ugly monk. The bottom left corner shows Veronica with the

Veil of Veronica The Veil of Veronica, or (Latin for sweat-cloth), also known as the Vernicle and often called simply the Veronica, is a Christian relic consisting of a piece of cloth said to bear an image of the Holy Face of Jesus produced by other than human ...

, with her eyes half-open and the face looking back. Finally, at the top left is

Simon of Cyrene Simon of Cyrene (, Standard Hebrew ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian Hebrew ''Šimʿôn''; , ''Simōn Kyrēnaios''; ) was the man compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus of Nazareth as Jesus was taken to his crucifixion, according to all three ...

, his face upside upturned.

Related works

There are two further versions of the subject by Bosch: a previous one from around 1498, now at the

Royal Palace of Madrid The Royal Palace of Madrid ( es, Palacio Real de Madrid) is the official residence of the Spanish royal family at the city of Madrid, although now used only for state ceremonies. The palace has of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms. It is the ...

, and another in the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

from around 1500.

References

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christ Carrying The Cross (Bosch, 1515-16) 1516 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent Paintings by Hieronymus Bosch Bosch Caricature