The Way to Calvary

Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio (circa 1499 - circa 1543)

National Gallery

before 1534

This moving painting of Christ on his way to Calvary was rapidly executed with some figures more fully developed in thick daubs of impasto while others are left as scrawls. It depicts Christ on his knees, crushed beneath the weight of the giant cross he bears. One soldier stamps his bare foot while another brutally drags him forward. In the background, the Virgin has collapsed upon seeing her son so cruelly afflicted. This work was acquired with assistance from the Wolfson Foundation.

• Medium: oil on walnut
• Dimensions: 75.3 x 59cm
• Art Fund Grant: £80000 ( Total: £500,000)
• ArtFunded in: 2003
• Vendor: Through Timothy Sammons

Provenance

Max Koetser in England; A Scharf in mid 1930s; Christie's, 1959; Philip Pouncey; thence by descent.

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