Via Dolorosa

Vero dissegno, e fedele descrittione, della Strada Dolorosa, per quale Christo Nostro Signore partitosi dal Palazzo di Pilato con la Croce in spalla, camino tutto piagato da flagelli, e pesto da battiture fino al Monte Calvario.
Treviso: Gasparo Pianta, [ca. 1705]. (BRB1175)

This otherwise unrecorded broadside presents a diagrammatic view of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, the road by which Christ was led to his Crucifixion. The alphabetical key indicates the locations of (a) Christ’s flagellation, (b) the House of Pontius Pilate, (c) the Holy Steps, and (d) the House of Herod, continuing through (n), the Cross on Calvary. As the broadside states, the image was created by a Franciscan friar in order to arouse the devout interest of the faithful. Although the broadside does not relate directly to an actual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, it inspires a mental pilgrimage in which the viewer meditates upon specific landmarks of Christ’s final sufferings on earth.