Bosch, Hieronymus

Christ Carrying the Cross

c. 1490 (160 Kb); Oil on panel, 76.7 x 83.5 cm; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Ghent

Bosch's belief in the pervasive evil of the world colored his paintings of more conventional religious subjects; the stories of Christ and the saints became images of torment by demons or mobs of mocking humans. Typical of these interpretations are the numerous images from Christ's passion, such as the half-length Crowning with Thorns, or Christ Being Shown to the People (c.1485; National Gallery, London). A representative image of this type is the view, also half-length, of Christ Carrying the Cross (c.1490; Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent), in which a crowd of grotesque faces seems to swallow up the face of the suffering Christ.