The Elevation of the Cross (Rubens)

The Elevation of the Cross or The Raising of the Cross is the title of a large triptych painted in oil on panel by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp in the years 1610 and 1611. It hangs in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. The work is a winged altarpiece, with hinged wings that can be folded over the central panel, allowing an 'open view' and a 'closed view'. The three panels on the obverse side depict in a creative way episodes from the Passion of Jesus at the moment of the raising of the Cross on which Jesus is nailed.

Rubens painted the triptych for the high altar of the St. Walburga Church in Antwerp.. It was his first important religious commission after his return to Antwerp in late 1608 from a long stay in Italy. The triptych introduced large-scale Baroque painting in Flemish art and established Rubens's reputation as a leading painter in Flanders.