This painting renders a unique view of the Crucifixion on Mount Calvary: the view of Jesus hanging from the Cross.
The kneeling figure at the bottom of the image appears to be Mary Magdalene, while the Blessed Virgin Mary appears to be standing in the center with St. John the Evangelist to her right.
The high-priests sit on their mules off to the right of the image while the Centurion, St. Longinus, is off to the upper left of the picture.
To the left and right of Saint Longinus are two sitting, Roman soldiers with lances—quite possibly one of the same lances that Longinus would later use to pierce the side of Jesus Christ.
In the far background, we see the tomb where Jesus will be laid to rest after His death on the Cross.
This crowded image gives us a good idea of how the people of the time dressed and looked. In other Tissot artworks, you have a closer view of people, but in this rendition, he wants to give us a larger scope of what was going on through the eyes of Jesus Christ as He hung on the Cross in agony.
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Title: What Our Saviour Saw from the Cross  |  Artist: James Tissot Â
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Patrick Werick
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