The Road to Calvary (Tiepolo)

Christ buckles under the weight of the cross on the crowded, climbing road to Calvary, soldiers shoving, banners snapping, the whole jostling procession swept upward toward Golgotha. Giambattista Tiepolo, the supreme decorator of the Venetian eighteenth century, charges the scene with airy, luminous color and swirling theatrical movement even in its suffering. Painted for the church of Sant'Alvise in Venice, it shows how he brought the lightness of the Rococo to grave religious drama - the Passion staged with dazzling, stagey brilliance rather than grim darkness.