This print was produced as a later state made after several alterations. On close inspection details have been changed through the use of a burin (a slender tool with a flat, curved tip utilised to erase details from the printing plate). Notice the darker areas on either side; they have completely blackened details that were previously visible.
Details such as the depiction of Mary in the right middle-ground, once clearly visible as distraught and surrounded by others who console her, has progressively been hidden by the intense shadow cast on the right side of the image. The circle of light surrounding the figure of Christ starts to narrow and alter the reading of this moving image.
Thus, the narrative of Christ’s suffering becomes the emotional and compositional focus.
