Christ Falls on the Way to Calvary - painting by Raphael
1517, Oil on panel transferred to canvas, 318 x 229 cm - Museo
del Prado, Madrid
Scan & text courtesy of the Web Gallery of Art
| The painting was executed for the Santa
Maria dello Spasimo in Palermo, partly by the school of Raphael.
(It is called Lo Spasimo di Sicilia.) The church was dedicated to
the grief and agony ('spasimo') of the Virgin when she witnessed the
sufferings of Christ, and the true subject of Raphael's altarpiece is
indeed the mutual gaze of Christ, stumbling beneath the weight of the
Cross, and his distraught mother, who reaches out her arms in vain.
Philip IV, King of Spain bought the painting in 1622. In 1813 Napoleon took it as booty to Paris, where it was moved to canvas. In 1822 the painting was given back to Spain. |
Painting Gallery Subject Gallery
| Credits: Christ Falls on the Way to Calvary painting by Raphael. Courtesy of the Web Gallery of Art. Descriptive text courtesy of the Web Gallery of Art. Scan & text used by permission of Emil Kren. The Web Gallery of Art - http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/welcome.html Background pattern courtesy of the © |
