Christ is aided by Simon the Cyrenian to take the Cross to Calvary on Mount Golgotha, as is told in the New Testament story of the Passion (Matthew 27, 32; Mark 15, 21).

This work has a great narrative sense and, despite its dramatic nature, it is distanced from the viewer, who doesn't participated in the exchange of glances between Christ and the Cyrenian.

Originally in the private chapel of Felipe II (1556-1598) at the Monastery of El Escorial, this work entered the Prado Museum in 1845.

It is signed on the stone on which Christ's hand rests.