Kreuztragung Christi

Während sich die meisten niederländischen Zeichnungen des 15. Jahrhunderts auf die Wiedergabe einzelner Figuren beschränken, zeigt dieses außergewöhnliche Blatt eine volkreiche Kreuztragung Christi auf dem Weg nach Golgatha (Mt 27, 31b – 32; Mk 15, 20b – 21; Lk 23, 26 – 32; Jo 19, 16b – 17). Der Figurenzug scheint hinter Christus unterbrochen zu sein, da die Gruppe der Trauernden, denen die kniende Veronika das Abbild Christi auf ihrem Schweißtuch präsentiert, nicht in Feder ausgeführt wurde. Durch dieses Nebeneinander leer gelassener und sorgfältig ausgeführter Partien gibt sich die Zeichnung als Kopie zu erkennen.

Das Kompositionsschema der von Zuschauern gesäumten Wegkurve basiert auf einem verlorenen Vorbild Van Eycks aus der Zeit um 1420 bis 1425, das durch mehrere Kopien überliefert ist. Stilistische Gründe und motivische Übereinstimmungen mit Werken des Dirk Bouts sprechen für eine Entstehung der einst fälschlich Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. zugeschriebenen Zeichnung in seiner Löwener Werkstatt: Figurentypen und Kostümdetails sind Bouts’ Brüsseler Kreuzigung (um 1450 – 1460; Brüssel, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Inv. Nr. 8181, https://www.fine-arts-museum.be/fr/la-collection/dirk-bouts-la-crucifixion?letter=b§) eng verwandt. Der am Kreuzesfuß voranschreitende Scherge findet sich ebenso wie die Figur des Christus in einer Kreuztragung aus dem Atelier von Bouts’ Sohn und Nachfolger Albert (um 1505; Zisterzienserabtei Wettingen-Mehrerau) sowie in der boutsschen Gefangennahme wieder (um 1450 – 1460; München, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Inv. Nr. 990, https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/de/artwork/Dn4ZPb3LaK/dieric-bouts-d-ae/tafel-eines-fluegelaltares-gefangennahme-christi§). Die Kreuztragung ist damit ein seltenes Beispiel der bislang wenig bekannten Zeichnungen aus dem Bouts-Kreis, für welche die feine, nuancenreiche Zeichenweise mit filzig verwobenen Schraffen und eingestreuten Punkten charakteristisch ist.

Bosch, Bruegel, Rubens, Rembrandt. Meisterwerke der Albertina, hg. von K. A. Schröder und C. Metzger, Albertina, Wien, Ostfildern 2013, Abb. 15, S. 34.

The approximately six hundred Netherlandish

drawings extant from the fifteenth century are, for

the most part, not sketches, drafts, or autonomous

creations (the latter appeared only in the early

sixteenth century) but, instead, are copies. In

artists’ workshops, such drawings served as training

materials for apprentices, as resources for motifs,

or as replicas of compositions (ricordi). Most of

these copies were limited to the reproduction of

individual figures. In this extraordinary work, however,

we find a composition with many figures. The

drawing depicts Christ bearing the cross on the way

to Golgotha.1 In the center of a procession led by

horsemen, Christ bears a cross with the staff pointed

forward, and Simon of Cyrene helps carry it. One

of the henchmen pulls Christ forward with a rope

bound around his waist while another man walking

behind Christ holds the other end of the rope. Ahead

of Christ, other henchmen and soldiers walk, along

with the two bound robbers who will be crucified

with him. The path, which is lined with onlookers,

curves upward through a ravine, as can be seen

by the outlined crags above and on the right-hand

margin of the image. A richly dressed dignitary

follows on horseback at the end of the procession,

most likely the Roman centurion or Pontius Pilate

himself.

The line of figures behind Christ is interrupted,

since the group of mourners, to whom the kneeling

Veronica presents the image of Christ on her veil,

was not delineated in ink.2 According to the biblical

narrative, Christ encountered Mary and wiped his

face with Veronica’s veil (sudarium) before he was

pulled away by the soldiers. In the drawing, the juxtaposition

of space left empty with carefully executed

sections indicates that it is a copy after another

composition. The original image is lost. A painted

version in Aachen, in which almost all the figures of

the drawing have been reproduced, depicts the crags

that are merely suggested in the Albertina sheet.3

On the left side, the painting offers a landscape view

of a city and mountains in the distance. Conversely,

in the drawing, the public spectacle of the bearing

of the cross lacks any indication of a specific locale.

Due to the minimal foreground, the figural procession

is brought close to the viewer, who assumes the

role of an onlooker on the side of the path.

Most scholars agree that the compositional scheme

is based on a lost model by Jan van Eyck (1390/99–

1441) from between 1420 and 1425, which is known

through several copies. A panel in the Museum of

Fine Arts, Budapest, is regarded as the most faithful

replica of Van Eyck’s original concept (fig. 1). This

work also depicts the curved path through a ravine

with everyday observers and greatly foreshortened

riders seen from behind. Although the broad landscape

with urban scenery plays an important role

in the panel, the draftsman of the Vienna image

concentrated primarily on the figures and chose

another narrative moment with his addition of the

Veronica group. Moreover, in the drawing, the path

runs in the opposite direction to the panel, from left

to right. Other details are also rendered differently,

and the sheet’s figures are more compact and wear

simpler clothing than in the Budapest pendant.4

Thus, while derived from Van Eyck’s composition,

both the drawing and the Aachen painting appear

to document a lost prototype.

There are several reasons for associating the

drawing with Dieric Bouts (c. 1415–1475), who was

active in Leuven. Figural types and costume details

are closely related to Bouts’s Crucifixion in Brussels.5

The advancing henchman at the foot of the cross

can also be found in a Boutsian Betrayal of Christ

in Munich6 and in Bearing of the Cross from the

workshop of Bouts’s son and successor, Albrecht

(1451/55–1549).7 In addition, the fine and richly

nuanced draftsmanship, with interwoven hatching

and interspersed dots, is characteristic of Bouts’s

circle. The numerous parallels suggest that Christ

Bearing the Cross—once erroneously ascribed to

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526/27–1569)—was created

in Dieric Bouts’s workshop, where it was frequently

used as a model.

1. Matthew 27:31b–32; Mark 15:20b–21; Luke 23:26–32;

John 19:16b–17.

2. Cf. the reconstructed drawing in Panofsky 1927–28, between

94 and 95, ill. 5.

3. Circle of Dieric Bouts, Christ Bearing the Cross, c. 1490,

oil on panel, 43.5 x 33.8 cm, Suermondt-Museum, Aachen,

GK 58; Grimme 1963, 186–87, no. 99.

4. Cf. a further drawing with several figures from the

procession of riders: Unknown Netherlandish artist, Figures

from Christ Carrying the Cross, c. 1430, silverpoint on green

prepared paper, 13.5 x 11.5 cm, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum,

Braunschweig, Z 216.

5. Dieric Bouts, Crucifixion, c. 1450–60, tempera on linen,

181.5 x 153.5 cm, Musées royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique,

Brussels, 8181; Périer-D’Ieteren 2006, 164–65, 237, no. 2.

6. Workshop or follower of Dieric Bouts, Betrayal of Christ,

c. 1478–86, oil on panel, 105.2 x 68.4 cm, Bayerische

Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 990;

Périer-D’Ieteren 2006, 192–203, 358, no. A8a.

7. Bearing of the Cross, c. 1505, triptych, oil on panel, left wing,

111 x 62.2 cm, Cistercian abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau, Bregenz;

Henderiks 2011, 353–54, no. 18.

Emily J. Peters, Laura M. Ritter (Hg.), AK Tales of the City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, Cleveland Museum of Art 9.10.2022 - 8.1.2023, New Haven 2022, Kat. Nr. 2