View of the nave and the inner façade

The early decades of the sixteenth century in Cremona were some of the most turbulent in its political history. In these years of constantly changing foreign rulers, the local leaders of Cremona pursued an elaborate project of decoration with remarkable consistency. From 1506 to 1522 the community had the chancel and nave of the twelve-century cathedral frescoed. By continuing the decoration through all the changes in government, the community represented its own identity; it was an act of local self-assertion.

The Golgotha by Pordenone dominate the nave; an elevated Golgotha towers over the portal of the entrance. Pordenone places the cross at an angle in the picture plane, which moves Christ to the right of centre, making the composition more dynamic. The movement of the riders beneath the crosses echoes the crosses above them. A circular configuration results, and Mary has fallen into a faint at its centre.

In the lower zone of the wall next to the portal to the church Pordenone painted the Lamentation in 1522. Not until 1529 did the Lamentation receive its pendant, when Bernardino Gatti painted the Resurrection on the other side of the portal.