A PIECE OF A CALVARY

TYPOLOGY 

The main characters of this relief are normally located to the left of the crowds of people depicted in the Road to Calvary representations placed in the central compartment of those altarpieces dedicated to the Passion of Christ. We can see here that the original altarpiece must have been a particularly large one because the fragments that have survived to the present day are almost a metre tall. 

The composition itself is also somewhat unusual inasmuch as it is much more compact than normal; the characters seen here are normally allocated much more space around them whereas here they all form part of the same block. This is exactly the cases of Longinus and his squire who are normally portrayed on horseback some distance away from the scene of the Swooning of the Virgin and in the scene with Mary Magdalene whose figure also normally appears independently at the foot of the Cross. 

Given the fragments' chronology and precedence, we may assume they probably formed part of the central scene of an inverted "T"-shaped altarpiece, which was the type of altarpiece that was clearly predominant in the period and manufacturing source suggested.