This work depicts the moment when Simon the Cyrenian was obliged to carry Christ's towards Golgotha, as is told in the New Testament story of the Passion (Matthew 27, 32; Mark 15, 21). The highly emotional scene has the figures in the foreground. Christ, in particular, turns a questioning gaze to the viewer, with teary and bloodshot eyes. The brushstrokes are diluted and color plays a leading role in the configuration of shapes and volumes.

There is another version of this work by the same painter at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Peterburg.

This work was first listed in Spain in the 1666 inventory of Madrid's Alcázar Palace. It entered the Prado Museum collection in 1843.

It is signed on the Cross.