"Christ Carrying the Cross"

This work encapsulates the religious paintings of Grünewald which are intense and emotionally expressive, particularly his scenes of Christ in agony. Here, Christ’s torture and suffering has been amplified to create an emotionally tugging work of art. The brutality and fierce hatred visible on the surrounding soldiers’ faces betrays Grünewald’s preference for emotional extremes and his unmatched ability to evoke them. Like all his paintings, the figures depicted are not classicized, but inspired by Gothic Art. Yet the painting  is also indebted to the Italian masters in his rendering of realistic skin tones. It was this ability to bring existing styles into new formal relationships that gave Grünewald’s art such a distinct personal style.