Christ Carrying the Cross (Lotto)

Christ's tear-streaked face is pushed right to the surface, the crown of thorns biting, his eyes lifted and brimming, while soldiers' hands seize his hair and shoulder the cross at the edges of the frame. Lorenzo Lotto crops the Passion down to a single charged head and presses the viewer into intimate compassion. Trained in Venice but working out in the provinces, Lotto kept a restless, intensely personal voice apart from Titian's grand manner, his religious feeling raw and direct. The collection holds several such close devotional faces of the suffering Christ - Antonello's at the column, Bosch's in the jeering crowd.