| Vincenzo Catena chose a compact view for his picture "Christ Bearing the Cross", painted in the 1520s: it shows only a half-length figure of Christ with the cross on his shoulder. In the mid-fourteenth century, Christ bearing the cross was removed from Passion scenes involving a large number of figures. He became the subject of a new devotional image symbolizing the suffering of humanity. The concentration on Jesus’ face, and its simple presentation, lend Catena’s painting the characteristics of a bourgeois portrait. The similarity in structure to portraits by Catena’s teacher Giorgione is certainly no coincidence. As a composition, Catena’s Christ Bearing the Cross takes its inspiration from a painting by Giovanni Bellini (Isabella Stewart Gerdner Museum, Boston, MA), whose late work was an important source for Catena. The calm pictorial structure, based on parallel lines, reinforces the contemplative character of the devotional image. Only the theatrical lighting against a black background relates to the drama of the events. |
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Oil on panel cradled
height 47 cm, width 38 cm
Inv.-No. GE35
Provenance: before 1712 acquired by Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein, after 1712 in the possession of his daughter Maria Theresia Felicitas, Duchess of Savoy-Carignan
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