The Carrying of the Cross (Martini)

Christ in vivid red shoulders the cross through the gate of a white, many-towered Jerusalem on the way to his crucifixion (John 19:16-17), hauled by a rope as soldiers, lances, and a banner crowd behind; the Virgin and holy women raise their hands in grief, and children scamper at the lower right. Another leaf of Simone Martini's portable Orsini Polyptych, now in the Louvre, it turns the Passion into a jewel-bright pageant, every robe and helmet picked out in glowing color - the kind of Sienese splendor that would shape courtly painting across Europe.