Christ Carrying the Cross (El Greco, New York) Christ Carrying the Cross (El Greco, New York) Christ Carrying the Cross is a 1580 painting by El Greco, produced early in his Toledo period in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The picture depicts Christ's sacrifice for mankind as represented by his gentle embrace of the cross and his heavenward gaze. The artist frequently returned to the subject, as seen in works now in Madrid and Barcelona. Its owners have included Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818–1878), General Archibald Stirling and Lieutenant Colonel William Stirling. In 1953 it was acquired by Robert Lehman and in 1975 it was
El Greco the activation of the painterly values of El Greco which had been started by Manet and carried on by Cézanne". The expressionists focused on the expressive distortions of El Greco. According to Franz Marc, one of the principal painters of the German expressionist movement, "we refer with pleasure and with steadfastness to the case of El Greco, because the glory of this painter is closely tied to the evolution of our new perceptions on art". Jackson Pollock, a major force in the abstract expressionist movement, was also influenced by El Greco. By 1943, Pollock had completed sixty drawing compositions after