Jesus Christ carrying the Cross, inner wing

Hans Multscher's Jesus Christ Carrying the Cross (Wurzach Altarpiece), dated 1437 and also in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin, depicts the Via Dolorosa — Christ bearing his cross through the streets of Jerusalem toward Golgotha — with the characteristic emotional intensity and physical realism of Multscher's mature style. The subject required painters to show the physical exhaustion and suffering of Christ while maintaining his dignity as the Son of God, a balance managed differently by the Gothic idealism of the International style and the new northern realism Multscher was developing. His version pushes toward the rawness of suffering more than any of his German predecessors.

Multscher conveys the physical weight of the cross through Christ's bent posture and strained expression, departing significantly from the idealized suffering of the Gothic tradition. The surrounding crowd is densely packed and individually characterized. The warm palette and heavy physical presence of the figures demonstrate his emerging realist approach.