BAEGERT, Derick

The present composition - composed of two panels - was originally part of a large Crucifixion, which at some point in the past was broken up into smaller panels. Although five of these have been reunited in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, most of the composition is still missing.

The painting reveals a great interest in narrative and is built up through the accumulation of numerous different elements and incidents, whereby various episodes from the Passion take place at the same time: in the middle ground, Christ bearing the Cross takes the cloth which St Veronica offers Him. Behind this scene we see a hanged man, probably the traitor Judas. The various figures in the procession behind Christ are depicted in great detail, and the anecdotal nature of the painting is obvious in the figure who makes a mocking face at the Virgin and her followers.

This painting is a copy of a painting by the Master of Fl�malle (Robert Campin).

In the late fifteenth century, Wesel in the Lower Rhine was an important art centre, as demonstrated with the recently discovered oeuvre of Derick Baegert. His Bearing of the Cross does not merely describe Christ on the road to Calvary, but it evokes metaphorical associations through elaboration of the narrative. Without violating the meaning of the Gospel text, the painting transcends literal interpretation. In continuous narrative, the painting elicits multiple associations. In the background, Christ can be witnessed already hanging on the cross, as his betrayer Judas commit suicide from a nearby tree.