LOTTO, Lorenzo
(b. ca. 1480, Venezia, d. 1556, Loreto)

Christ Carrying the Cross

1526
Oil on canvas, 66 x 60 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

The composition was inspired by Dürer. The painting is signed and dated on the cross.

Lotto's painting is one of the most brilliant examples of a theme that deeply engaged his contemporaries in both Lombardy and Venice. In these works, the focus is generally on Christ's head and shoulders pressed close to the picture plane, as he struggles with the cross and is beset by violent figures.