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Jheronimus Bosch: The Carrying of the Cross (Ghent)

Jheronimus Bosch ca. 1450 – 1516

The Carrying of the Cross (Ghent)

oil on panel (77 × 84 cm) — ca. 1510
Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent

Jheronimus Bosch biography

This work is linked to John 19:17

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A curious painting with an extraordinary composition for its day and age. The figures are jammed into a small space, leaving almost no room between them. All faces are caricatures except for two: the face of Jesus bearing the cross, and that of Veronica. She holds a towel with an imprint of the face that she has just dried.

Some say Bosch did not make this work himself. In addition, it is not entirely certain when the painting was made. The work is nevertheless often seen as the best example of Bosch's hallucinatory style.

He made at least two more paintings on the same subject: one is in Madrid, the other in Vienna.