Lot Essay
Brueghel painted three variants of this composition. One group shows rock formations in the background at the right and left edges, with a castle on the peak of the crag at the left edge and with a more well defined depiction of Jerusalem in the distance (Marlier, op. cit., pp. 290-2, figs. 167-70). The second group, to which the present picture belongs, shows an undulating landscape with fewer buildings in the distance and only one rock formation at the right edge (ibid., p. 292, nos. 5 and 7). The third type shows the Crucifixion from a lower viewpoint, thus curtailing the expanse of landscape visible in the first two groups (ibid., pp. 292-3, nos. 8-14, fig. 172).