Ashmolean The Elements of Drawing, John Ruskin’s teaching collection at Oxford

Christ hangs from the cross whilst the Virgin stands to the left and St John the Evangelist to the right. The Magdalene can just be seen kneeling at the foot of the cross, and another woman (presumably Mary Cleophas) on the left edge, behind the Virgin's shoulder. The soldier clutching a halberd may be intended for Saint Longinus. A skull sits at the foot of the cross. The engraving is no. 11 of Dürer's engraved "Passion" series.

Ruskin first catalogued the print in 1871, in the first edition of the Educational Catalogue, where it was framed with another engraving form the same series, "Christ carrying the Cross", as no. 31 E, part of Case III, "Illustrations of Northern Gothic, with its resultant Art", alongside several other Dürers. Although Ruskin never precisely identified which prints from the "Passion" were framed here, they were identified by Cook and Wedderburn ( XXI.86 n. 4). By 1874 (Educational catalogue, 2nd ed.), the frame had moved to Case V, "Elementary Illustrations of Landscape" - perhaps it to keep it with the other Dürers which surrounded it, as neither print displays much landscape behind the figures. It was described there as 'perfect in execution'. In Ruskin's "Abbeville" catalogue, several prints from the "Passion" were described as characteristic of Flamboyant design, and as 'Grotesque developed', although 'never surpassed in thoughtful masterhood of line engraving, or in ... special phase of imagination' (no. 22 = XIX.273).