Kruisiging van Christus (middendeel)

Christ is depicted as the central vertical axis, illuminated by a radiant burst of light against a dark, stormy sky. At the foot of the cross, the Virgin Mary faints in the arms of other mourners, while in the background, soldiers and workers use ropes and ladders to raise the crosses of the two thieves. The engraving captures a crowded, high-drama landscape based on Jacopo Tintoretto's monumental painting in Venice.

Aegidius Sadeler was a primary engraver for the court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, a center for late-Renaissance Hermeticism and alchemy. While the subject is traditional, the print represents the dissemination of grand Venetian compositions into the intellectually dense, Mannerist circles of Central Europe where religious art often overlapped with Neoplatonic concepts of divine light (lux) and suffering.