The painting depicts a procession of the Cross in a small village in the mountains of Italy. The procession begins from a small church on the right. The altar boy with the lantern has stopped to wait for the priest who can barely walk and who is shielded from the sun with a parasol by another server boy. Some village boys stand on the stairs carved in the rock, holding candles. A small flock of worshippers consisting of an old woman, a toddler and three women trails behind two singing monks.
The painter managed to capture the character in the face expressions of the congregation and paid much attention to the details of architecture, rocks, clouds in the sky and a sun-lit valley deep below.
Fyodor Bronnikov, the author of this picture, had been keen on painting since childhood. After the death of his father, an icon painter, 16-year-old Fyodor went to Saint Petersburg with a wagon-train, dreaming of entering the Imperial Academy of Arts.
The painter managed to capture the character in the face expressions of the congregation and paid much attention to the details of architecture, rocks, clouds in the sky and a sun-lit valley deep below.
Fyodor Bronnikov, the author of this picture, had been keen on painting since childhood. After the death of his father, an icon painter, 16-year-old Fyodor went to Saint Petersburg with a wagon-train, dreaming of entering the Imperial Academy of Arts.