El Greco
Christ on the Cross

Circa 1600
Oil on canvas
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

The artist omits all the persons traditionally included in Crucifixion images, except for three distant soldiers departing on their horses. Jesus is left alone and depleted, looking only to the Father above. At the foot of the cross El Greco pictures not only skulls, a common detail based on the name of the hill, but also broken bones.

John 19:19-20 says that Pilate had a label written with the words "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Most crucifixes and Crucifixion images reduce that to the acronym "inri," but El Greco pictures the entire label.

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Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.