In 2017 the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, California, featured artworks from Mission San Gabriel in its Getty-funded Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibition, California Mexicana: Missions to Murals, 1820–1930. One of the paintings on loan included Station 5: Simon of Cyrene Helps Christ Carry the Cross, from a set of fourteen canvases depicting the stations of the cross (fig. 1). The fifth of fourteen scenes from the series portrays a moment from Christ’s Passion in which he is seen wearing the crown of thorns while carrying the cross upon which he would be crucified. The upper half of the cross rests horizontally on his right shoulder, and Simon stands behind holding the lower portion of the cross while the Virgin Mary, two other women, and soldiers watch nearby. White columns flank the crowded scene that the human figures dominate. The unusual style of the scene and...
University of California Press