The artist depicts Calvary in an unusual perspective. He shifts the traditional emotional and semantic center, crucifixion, aside and writes Christ almost in profile, and the face of one of the robbers is generally hidden from the viewer. The tension of the alarming, dramatic composition is amplified by a dark background: the sky with heavy threatening clouds and the restless silhouette of trees swayed by the wind.
It seems that the Mother of God and John the Theologian are completely alone in their deep experience of tragedy. Already now, in the early period, Cranach uses accented details to create a special mood in the picture.
For example, the curling folds of the Savior’s loincloth or the restless pattern of the Virgin Mary’s crouching on the earth. This – the harbingers of a new style in art – Mannerism, which will eventually become more vivid in the painting of Lucas Cranach.
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