Artwork · 16th century · Sebastiano del Piombo

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Christ Carrying the Cross

Sebastiano del Piomboc. 1515–17Oil on panel118 × 92 cm

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At a glance

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Christ, crowned with thorns, bends under a heavy cross while Simon of Cyrene helps lift it and a Roman soldier in a helmet looks on.
Sebastiano del Piombo, a Venetian painter who moved to Rome, painted it in oil on panel around 1515–17.
Pictures of Christ carrying the cross were in great demand for private prayer, and Sebastiano painted this subject many times.

Reading the picture

5 places to look closer

Tap a number on the painting to jump to its note, or a close-up to see that spot in the whole picture.

Zoom in on Christ's face. A crown of thorns rings his head, and his eyes droop shut with exhaustion. His lips part slightly, as if he is struggling for breath. His face almost rests against the wood of the cross.
Look at the young man at the upper left. This is Simon. He tips his head back and looks up, mouth half open. Down at the lower left you can see his hand bracing the cross from below. The museum describes him as trying to help Christ lift the heavy beam.
Zoom in on the darkness behind Simon. Under a gleaming steel helmet, a bearded soldier's face is half hidden. Light catches only the rim of the helmet, and his eyes sink into shadow. The museum says he looks on menacingly.
Look at the two hands gripping the cross. Every knuckle and the curve of each hand is clear, one hand clamped above the other. A white sleeve falls at the wrist. You can even see the grain and fine cracks in the wood.
Zoom in on the distant landscape at the upper right. Under a sky glowing red with sunset stands a tall building, and in front of it people with a banner and riders on horseback move in a line. Unlike the dark foreground, only this corner is lit by the evening glow.

When it was painted

Around 1515 Sebastiano was about thirty. He had trained as a painter in Venice. In 1511 the rich Roman banker Agostino Chigi brought him to Rome, where he worked on decorating Chigi's villa.

Rome had two giants at the time: Michelangelo, who had painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and Raphael, who was painting rooms in the Vatican palace for the pope. Sebastiano soon took Michelangelo's side. Michelangelo took him under his wing, taught him his grand, sculptural style, and even supplied drawings for some of his commissions.

The rivalry turned into something like a public contest. Cardinal Giulio de' Medici ordered two large altarpieces for the same cathedral, one from Sebastiano and one from Raphael. Sebastiano painted The Raising of Lazarus, and Raphael painted The Transfiguration.

That cardinal later became Pope Clement VII, and Sebastiano became his favorite painter. In 1531 the pope gave him the office of keeper of the papal seal, which stamped lead seals onto papal documents. That is where his nickname comes from: del Piombo, of the lead.

This painting entered the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. The same year, the dealers Colnaghi of London and Madrid published a whole study devoted to this one picture.

Look again at the two hands on the cross. The face has gone limp with exhaustion, but the hands have not let go.

The painter

Sebastiano del Piombo

1485–1547

All paintings by Sebastiano del Piombo →

Christ Carrying the Cross

Questions to think about

Look for itWhere can you find Simon's hand in the picture?
Why?Why do you think Sebastiano set the cross as a huge diagonal cutting across the whole picture?
What about you?Simon helped carry a stranger's heavy load. Who around us shares other people's burdens today, and when have you done that yourself?

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