Road to Calvary

Circle of Claude Déruet

National Gallery of Art

A man, Jesus, carries the crossbeam of a wooden cross over one shoulder and stumbles amid a crowd of dozens of people on foot, sitting, or on horseback in this wide, octagonal painting. All the people appear to have pale skin and wear robes in shades of ivory white, rose pink, ultramarine blue, soft red, or golden yellow. Two men walking away from Jesus have their wrists bound behind their backs. Two men near Jesus lift their arms and look at him, and Jesus looks back over one shoulder. The cross is taller than he is, so the long beam drags behind him. A woman has fainted to the right and is supported by four people. Another bare-breasted woman and three children sit at the bottom center of the composition. Dozens of men walk or urge the crowd along from horseback. Dark trees grow up either side of the painting, and cliff faces and a ruined structure are in the distance between. The low sun shades the clouds along the horizon peach, and the sky deepens to blue above bands of gray clouds.