The Passion: The Cross Bearing (c. 1450–75): Art, History and Details

The Passion: The Cross Bearing (c. 1450–75) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Master of the Banderoles (Netherlandish, active about 1450–75).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The biblical verse along the border of this scene from Christ’s suffering leading up to his crucifixion—the only known impression of this image—implies that it might have served as an alternative to an illuminated prayer book. Master of the Banderoles may have used a drypoint needle instead of a burin to make shallow scratches, as well as a softer metal printing plate, like tin, which was easier to engrave but produced a less precise image that wore down quickly. The artist also borrowed motifs from other artists: For instance, the unresolved spatial relationships of the figures behind the cross suggest he copied another work without the training needed to render it convincingly.

Object facts

• Title: The Passion: The Cross Bearing
• Date: c. 1450–75
• Creator attribution: Master of the Banderoles (Netherlandish, active about 1450–75)
• Culture: Netherlands, 15th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving with traces of hand coloring
• Dimensions: Image: 19 x 13.4 cm (7 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1942.304

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Francis, Henry. "Four Engravings of the Passion Series by the Master of the Banderoles." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 9 (November 1944): 162, 167-168.
• Lockhart, Anne I. “Four Engravings by the Master with the Banderoles.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 8 (October 1973): 247–254.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.