Le Portement de Croix

Bartolomeo di Tommaso da Foligno's Le Portement de Croix (Carrying of the Cross), painted around 1450 and now in the Musée du Petit Palais in Avignon, depicts the moment in the Passion narrative when Christ carries his cross through Jerusalem toward Golgotha, typically shown with Simon of Cyrene compelled to help and women weeping along the route. The Carrying of the Cross was one of the fourteen Stations of the Cross that organized late medieval devotional meditation on the Passion, and its depiction in panel painting served both liturgical and private devotional purposes.

Tempera on panel. The Carrying of the Cross composition organizes a crowd of soldiers, officials, and mourners around the central figure of Christ bearing the cross. The composition is typically crowded and processional, moving across the picture plane from right to left toward Calvary.