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Christ carrying the Cross oil on canvas, unframed 39 7/8 x 34 in. (101.3 x 86.4 cm.) PROVENANCE Pedro Gil, Paris, circa 1900, and by descent to the present owner. LITERATURE M. Legendre and A. Hartmann, El Greco, Paris, 1937, fig. 178, as El Greco. H.E. Wethey, El Greco and his School, Princeton, New Jersey, 1962, II, p. 174, no. X-40, as unknown location and a copy, circa 1650, an opinion subsequently revised on first-hand inspection to 'Workshop of El Greco' (letter 30 August 1970). J. Cam¢n Aznar, Domenico Greco, Madrid, 1970, fig. 244. NOTES As Jonathan Brown has noted ( The Robert Lehman Collection, East Greenwich, 1998, pp. 172-3) this composition type, which is common in North Italian painting of the late-fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, appears to have been introduced into Spain through the work of Sebastiano del Piombo. His narrative version of the subject (Prado, Madrid) and the reduced devotional picture (Hermitage, St. Petersburg) are both first recorded in Spanish collections. The latter was commissioned by Fernando de Silva, conde de Cifuentes, and completed in 1537. Both it and the picture in Madrid were described in the Escorial in 1626 by Cassiano dal Pozzo, who mentioned that the reduced version was 'especially dear to Philip II' ( loc. cit. ). That the composition was well-known in Spain is attested to by the existence of several works by Luis de Morales, who worked in Badajoz during the period 1550-70. El Greco substantially modified Sebastiano's composition. In the latter, Christ is oppressed by the weight of the cross he carries on his shoulder. In El Greco's interpretation, he stands upright and gently embraces the cross with his eyes looking heavenward. Thus the cross is transformed from an instrument of martyrdom into a medium of salvation through sacrifice. Christ carrying the Cross was one of El Greco's most popular compositions. Wethey lists eleven variations of the theme, as partly or wholly by El Greco, and ten, including the present picture (a view subsequently revised, for which see literature, above), as by followers, imitators and copyists. The prime version of Wethey's 'Type I' category (see H.E. Wethey, El Greco and His School, 1962, II, p. 38, where dated to circa 1585-90) from which the present picture varies - most notably in the handling of the clouds - is generally believed to be the signed example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Lehman collection). Legendre and Hartmann ( loc. cit. ), were followed by Cam¢n Aznar ( loc. cit. ) in accepting the autograph status of the present picture; Dr. William Jordan (private communication, 1998) has rejected it. Professor Alfonso P‚rez S nchez, having seen the original picture (private communication, 2001), believes that the head is fully by El Greco and the rest of the picture the work of his studio.