Road to calvary

   After Christ endured the Flagellation and mocking, he was forced to carry his own cross up to Calvary where he was stripped of his clothes and crucified. The scene was depicted several times by Hieronymus Bosch, the version in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Ghent (1490) being the most poignant as it shows Christ surrounded by the ugly humanity that caused his suffering. Similarly, Simone Martini chose a crowded representation (c. 1340-1344; Paris, Louvre), his dramatized by the flailing arms of Mary Magdalen and the Virgin who trail behind Christ. El Greco, on the other hand, painted the scene with the bleeding Christ alone, holding the cross, and looking up to heaven as if to denote that he has accepted his fate (c. 1590-1595; New York, Oscar B. Cintas Foundation).