Artwork Information

The Way of the Cross is Colin McCahon's most significant commissioned work of art on a religious theme. It was intended as a devotional panorama for display in the choir balcony at the private convent chapel of The Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions in Upland Road, Remuera, Auckland. McCahon has concurred with Catholic theology that requires a cross made of wood be used to mark each station. As well as this, McCahon has inserted a painted shadow, or a silhouette, of each cross immediately under the Maltese wooden crosses. The painting is a visual story illustrative of the hours from the moment that Jesus is sentenced to death until his corpse is placed in its cave sepulchre. The story of Jesus' last day is seen against a landscape that directly references the volcanoes of the Auckland isthmus, while also recalling the hills on which Jerusalem was established.