Duccio di Buoninsegna was the leading painter of the Italian city-state of Siena in the late 1200s and early 1300s. His portrayal of Christ’s journey to Calvary was one of several scenes from the Passion of Jesus that adorn the reverse of his most famous altarpiece, the Maestà, commissioned for the Cathedral of Siena. As part of a narrative sequence, Duccio designed the composition with ease of legibility as one of his foremost considerations. 

To this end, Duccio’s portrayal stays close to the more extensive description of this episode in Luke 23:26–32 (as compared with the other Gospels). Christ has already been relieved of his burden of carrying the cross by Simon of Cyrene, seen on the far right. Meanwhile, Christ glances backward toward the women grouped together on the left who mourn his impending death. Among the women is the Virgin Mary, identified by her blue garment and gilded halo. 

The addition of other elements stimulates the viewer’s anticipation of Christ’s later death. Gaunt and solemnly immobile, while prominent against the throngs following behind him, he is clad in red as though to foreground the blood that will be shed at his crucifixion. His hands, here bound at the wrists, are lowered—a posture which foreshadows the one he will soon assume when lying dead (albeit temporarily) in the sepulchre.

The style of this panel is consistent with late Gothic painting in Siena. It bears witness to the influence of gilded icons from Byzantium that made their way to Italy after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. These typically enriched their sacred subjects with rich material splendour—both in forms of fields of gold leaf and also in the delicate tooling used to enliven the shimmer of halos.

In this particular example, the expansive gold leaf in the background conceals the fact that this event’s historical setting was an urban one. It removes the scene from the specificity of time and place. Further, it focuses the viewer’s attention on the crowds of figures packed together in the foreground. 

It is in these figures, and perhaps especially in the multitude of women wailing and lamenting Christ (Luke 23:27), that the viewer of this artwork finds his or her role. Not just as an outside spectator, but as a mournful participant from his or her own time and place of contemplation.