Christ Carrying the Cross

Juan de Juanes (Juan Maçip)

about 1560

Pen and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk; the upper left and right corners trimmed diagonally and made up, Pen, Ink, Wash

J. Paul Getty Museum

A group of figures, including Christ carrying a cross, are depicted in a dynamic composition. The drawing uses brown ink and wash with visible hatching and cross-hatching. Juan de Juanes actively worked out his ideas in this drawing, first in black chalk lines, which are faintly visible under the bolder pen-and-ink forms. In the earlier chalk rendition, he drew the figure of Christ farther to the left, carrying the cross with his right arm. The soldier to the right, leading him by the rope about his neck, was also father to the left, while two additional soldiers, faintly drawn in the top right, were not developed in pen. The Holy Women kneeling before him also changed when Juanes finished the drawing in pen after making the chalk underdrawing. He used the brown ink to model the forms in three dimensi