# Christ Carrying the Cross

**Martin Schongauer** (German, c. 1450–1491)  
ca. 1475–80  
Engraving  
Sheet: 11 3/8 × 16 7/8 in. (28.9 × 42.9 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 35.27. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336162).

## About this work

A great procession winds across the sheet towards Calvary, with soldiers on horseback, dogs and onlookers surrounding Christ, who has fallen beneath the weight of the cross. This is the largest and most ambitious engraving by Martin Schongauer of Colmar, the leading printmaker in Europe before Dürer, who travelled to Colmar hoping to meet him but arrived after his death. Schongauer’s precise, curving lines model figures, armour and landscape with an assurance that made his prints widely copied across Europe.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Martin Schongauer made this in about 1475–80, aged about 20. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Engraving.** Lines cut directly into a metal plate with a steel burin, which makes them swell and taper. It took years to master, and for centuries it was how paintings travelled as pictures.

### [Martin Schongauer](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/martin-schongauer)

German, c. 1450–1491; born in Colmar; died in Breisach

Schongauer, the son of a goldsmith, worked in Colmar in Alsace and was both a painter and the most accomplished engraver of fifteenth-century northern Europe. His engravings, more than a hundred, brought a new range of tone and texture to the medium and circulated widely; the young Michelangelo copied his Temptation of Saint Anthony, and Dürer travelled to Colmar hoping to meet him, arriving after his death. His Passion series shows his clear, expressive storytelling.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Prints
- The artist was about 20
- Real size: about 11 × 17 in (29 × 43 cm). The 12 × 16 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 15th century
- Subjects: Soldiers, Dogs, Horses, Christ, Cross, Bearing the Cross
- Colour: grey
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/999.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/999/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/christ-carrying-the-cross-met-336162).