Jesus Falling Beneath the Cross
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Mark 15:21
The passage
And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.
Mark 15:21
About this plate
The cross has come down across the middle of the plate on a long diagonal and Christ is under it, on one knee, both hands on the beam. To the left a man in a short tunic drives forward, taking the weight on his shoulder. Soldiers and spears crowd the top right, and the ground in front is bare pale dust.
The man taking the weight is Simon, and Doré gives him the most physical drawing in the plate — braced legs, the whole back engaged. He is the only person in the picture doing something useful.
Mark's verse is a conscription order, and it is oddly full of names: they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. Compel. He was walking into town.
Why Mark names the sons is one of the small mysteries of the gospel — presumably because his first readers knew them. A man is pulled out of a crowd on the worst afternoon in history and his children end up on the register.
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