The Elevation of the Cross

Straining, muscle-bound executioners heave the cross with the crucified Christ upward along a powerful diagonal, the whole composition a single surge of effort against a dark, stormy sky. The central panel of a great triptych for an Antwerp church, it is Rubens fresh from Italy, channeling Caravaggio's drama and Michelangelo's anatomy into a thunderous Northern Baroque. The body of Christ, brightly lit at the apex, becomes the still point of all that twisting labor below. With it Rubens announced himself, on his return home, as the dominant painter of Catholic Europe.