Carrying the Cross
by LAURANA, Francesco, Polychromed marble
The marble reredo (partition wall behind the altar) in the Chapel of Notre-Dame de Compassion, containing the relief of Carrying the Cross, was commissioned by King Ren� of Anjou for the main altar of the Celestines convent. It was sold during the Revolution and then bought in 1801 by the collegiate churchwardens.
Laurana took up the commission in 1478 and, according to the inscription, the work was erected in 1481. It is sculpted in bas-relief for the background and in high-relief for the figures. Some parts of the relief, which is partially polychromed, reveal a rather crude realism.