Christ falling under the Cross

This rediscovered picture may have formed part of a dismembered polyptych of The Passion of Christ, whose authorship is not known, though the style shows affinities with both Bernard van Orley (c. 1488-1548) and Jan Gossaert. It has traditionally been attributed to Bernard van Orley and was in the collection Th. Blumberger, Cologne, until 1911. Three other panels of similar dimensions with an arched top and presumed to be from the same series, have been offered with Christie’s, London, as works from the circle of Jan Gossaert: The Betrayal of Christ (16 April 1999, lot 93) and Christ before Pontius Pilate, and Christ nailed to the Cross (17 December 1999, lot 122). Friedländer reproduced two similar works in his catalogue devoted to the works of Jan Gossaert: a Crucifixion, formerly in the Stillwell collection, New York, and a Deposition, formerly in the R. Trautmann collection, Madrid (see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Jan Gossaert and Bernard van Orley, Leyden and Brussels, VIII, 1972, p. 93, nos. 16 and 17, pl. 23), where the attribution to Gossaert is being questioned.