Christ Carrying the Cross

Christ is the central figure, bowed under the weight of the cross and wearing a crown of thorns while being led by a rope. In the foreground, the Virgin Mary and other women kneel in grief, while a dense crowd of figures in contemporary and exotic costume follows the procession toward a distant, mountainous city. The engraving features the dense, swelling lines characteristic of the artist’s mastery of the copperplate.

This work is part of Goltzius's celebrated 'Passion' series, executed in a style that deliberately emulates the 'pious' manner of Lucas van Leyden. It reflects the late 16th-century Northern European interest in technical virtuosity as a form of intellectual competition and the persistence of traditional devotional themes within humanist circles.