The Passion: Christ on the Cross

c. 1480

The Passion: Christ on the Cross, c. 1480. Martin Schongauer (German, c.1450–1491). Engraving; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1930.525 Martin Schongauer's series of the Passion of Christ was his largest set of engravings, made around 1480, and extensively copied across Europe. It consists of twelve prints detailing the suffering of Christ in the last days of his life. Schongauer's version focuses on crowded scenes, grotesque physiognomies of Christ's tormentors, and great pathos in the compositions. Here, Saint John the Evangelist and four mourning women gather around the cross on which Christ's emaciated body rests. These figures were meant to model the emotional compassion to be felt by the viewer. The skull that lies on the ground behind Saint John alludes to the Golgotha, the site of Christ's crucifixion, also believed to be the place where Adam died.