The present painting is an example for De Vos style during the transition period between two different artistic approaches. The rather thin and dramatically animated figures as well as the intense colours are characteristic. Certain elements such as the mother with the child or the playing kids can be found in various works by the artist.

The subject Christ carrying the cross seems to have been of interest to De Vos. There are several versions of this subject by his hand. One variant, formerly at Christie’s, shows strong parallels with the present picture. One can assume that both paintings were created around the same time. The dating of the variant to “1631” gives us a terminus post quem.
Two other versions of the subject (one of them dated to “1634”) seem to proof that the two mentioned paintings stand at the beginning of the creative process. Both compositions are inverted. The figures move from right to left. New elements such as Jerusalem’s city architecture and its city gate have been added and the staffage differs from the other versions.