Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, 'The Procession to Calvary', probably about 1505

According to Christian tradition, the pagan virgin Veronica witnessed Christ carrying the Cross on the road to Calvary. She took pity on him and wiped his face with her veil, which was miraculously imprinted with his features. Saint Veronica kneels to receive the gauzy veil from Christ’s hand as he continues on his way. Although Christ is in profile, with his lidded eyes looking down and blood trickling from his forehead, the image on the cloth is full face with eyes gazing straight at us.

The Virgin and Mary Magdalene, with tears streaming from their eyes, follow Christ with Saint John the Evangelist. Simon of Cyrene, also in profile, helps to carry Christ’s cross, an episode recounted in Luke 23: 26. This incident is the Fifth Station of the Cross. The stations are halting-places on Christ’s journey on the Via Dolorosa to Calvary to be crucified and images of these moments are intended, accompanied by prayers, to help the faithful to contemplate the suffering of Christ.

The sixteenth-century art biographer Vasari writes that this painting was made for the church of San Gallo in Florence, which was destroyed in 1529. He implies that this was one of Ridolfo’s earliest important commissions. The subject of Christ carrying the Cross was unusual for altarpieces at this date in Italy – the prominence of Veronica and her veil suggests that this altarpiece may have been painted for a chapel dedicated to her.

Vasari also says that in this painting Ridolfo Ghirlandaio included a number of ‘very beautiful heads taken from life and executed with lovingness', including the portrait of his father, the artist Domenico Ghirlandaio, who had died in 1494 aged 45, and several friends and studio assistants. The older man in profile on the far right appears to be a portrait, resembling Domenico Ghirlandaio’s 1485 self portrait as a shepherd in his Adoration of the Shepherds in the Sassetta Chapel of the Carmine Church, Florence. Simon of Cyrene and the soldier looking directly at us on the left may also be portraits. (The soldier is anachronistically carrying a gun.) However, the face of the grimacing soldier to the right of Christ has not been studied from life but appears to be based on a drawing by Leonardo. The helmet of the mounted warrior recalls another Leonardo drawing: Profile of a Warrior in a Helmet (British Museum, London). Leonardo’s drawings, especially his renderings of extreme emotion and unusual physiognomies, were very influential during this period.