Christ carrying the cross
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| Christ carrying the cross |
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| Pieter Bruegel the Elder , 1564 |
| Oil on oak |
| 124 × 170 cm |
| Art History Museum |
Christ Carrying the Cross is a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder from the year 1564. It shows the Carrying of the Cross from the Passion of Christ in the middle distance and the Lamentation of Christ afterwards as “picture in picture” in the front right .
The oil painting on oak measures 124 × 170 cm and is exhibited in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna (room 10, inv.no. GG 1025).
content
From an elevated position, the viewer looks at a colorful crowd moving from a fortified city to an execution site. Christ collapsed under his cross in the exact center of the picture . Although it is placed in the center, it is tiny and, in addition, its color is inconspicuous - the red-clad riders attract significantly more attention. Two more condemned to death drive ahead in a cart. A monk gives spiritual assistance. In the lower left half of the picture, Simon is being led away from Cyrene to help Jesus carry the cross (actually a T-bar). The sky darkens from the city to the place of execution with heavy thunderclouds.
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In the right foreground, the Lamentation of Christ is shown as "picture in picture" . You can see Mary and Magdalena and Jesus' favorite disciple Johannes . This carefully supports Maria. To their right is a horse skull. These people are dressed in ancient flowing robes, while the rest of the people, with the exception of Jesus, are dressed in contemporary clothing.
interpretation
By and large, Bruegel relocated history to his homeland and time. Logically, his Jerusalem appears as a Flemish city. A contemporary windmill is placed on a rock and numerous wheels and a gallows dominate Golgotha . The place designated for the crucifixion of Jesus in the top right is only marked by a crowd.
The death row inmates in the carts receive the consolations of the Christian religion from the monk, although the death of Jesus is only imminent. Bruegel thus raises the question of what the contemporary church has to do with the sacrificial death of Jesus, or how Jesus would be received today. The “Pietà” (lamentation) in the foreground is actually intended for the dead Christ and is an anticipation of later events. As a repository motif, it enhances the depth effect. The sky, darkened from left to right, already indicates the hour of Jesus' death, because the Gospels according to Mark , Luke and Matthew report that the sky darkened from the sixth to the ninth hour during the crucifixion.
Place of issue
The picture is exhibited in the Bruegelsaal of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. There you will also find The Conversion of Paul , The Battle between Carnival and Lent , The Peasant Wedding , The Dark Day , The Return of the Flock , The Hunters in the Snow , The Children's Games and the Tower of Babel .
Technique, dating and provenance
It is an oil painting on an oak panel measuring 124 × 170 cm, the signature is on the lower right: BRVEGEL. MD.LXIIII. First in the possession of the merchant and art collector Nicolaes Jonghelinck , it then came into the possession of the city of Antwerp . In 1595 it was given to Archduke Ernst and later to Rudolf II. Since 1783 it has been in the picture gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Movie
In 2010 , Lech Majewski shot the full-length feature film The Mill and the Cross about this painting . This film is an essay that looks at the creation of the painting and its background and in this way provides approaches for interpretation and stages it on film.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Christian Vöhringer: Pieter Bruegel. 1525 / 30-1569. Tandem Verlag, 2007 (hfullmann imprint), ISBN 978-3-8331-3852-2 , p. 70ff.
- ↑ ( Mt 27.45 EU ) ( Lk 23.44 EU ) ( Mk 15.33 EU )
- ↑ interactive: visit Gemäldegalerie 2007 (DVD-Rom) Navigation
- ↑ KHM image database ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on April 5, 2011
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1324055/
Web links
Old peasant woman | The Adoration of the Magi (Bruegel, 1564) | The Adoration of the Magi (Bruegel, around 1556) | The Adoration of the Magi in the Snow | The country wedding | The peasant dance | The conversion of Paul | The Bethlehemite Child Murder | The fall of the blind | Christ and the Apostles at the Sea of Galilee | Christ and the adulteress | The three soldiers | The gloomy day | The magpie on the gallows | River landscape with a sower | The yawn (?) | Great Tower of Babel | The port of Naples | The return of the flock | The haymaking | The wedding dance | The hunters in the snow | The battle between carnival and fasting | The children's games | Little Tower of Babel | The grain harvest | Christ Carrying the Cross | The cripples | Landscape with the Flight into Egypt | Landscape with the fall of Icarus (?) | Seascape with a burning city (?) | The misanthrope | The nest ejector | The Dutch proverbs | The sermon of John the Baptist | The land of milk and honey | Saul's suicide | The fall of the rebelling angels | Death of the virgin | The great Grete | The triumph of death | The Bethlehem Census | The wine for the feast of St. Martin | Winter landscape with ice skaters and bird trap | Two monkeys | Twelve Proverbs (?)
(?) Attribution controversial | Formerly attributed to Bruegel