Christ Carrying the Cross
Dateca. 1535-1540
CultureItalian
MediumOil on slate
ClassificationPaintings
Credit LineGift from the Collection of Matthew Rutenberg, 2023
Object number2023.37.1
This work is painted in oil on stone (slate), a technique pioneered in the 1530s by the painter Sebastiano del Piombo (ca. 1485-1547), whose work in oil on canvas can be seen nearby. Leonardo Grazia, who spent part of his career in Rome, appears to have learned the technique of painting on slate from Sebastiano, and the present work is a reinterpretation of one of Sebastiano’s famous compositions. However, the delicate facial features of Christ, along with the highly polished flesh surfaces, and the cool palette, are characteristic of Grazia’s style.
On View
Not on viewFrame: 36 × 26 1/2 × 1 1/8 in. (91.4 × 67.3 × 2.9 cm)
Pieter Coecke van Aelst the elder
1520s
W. Eugene Smith
April or May 1945
