A soldier in armor thrusts a long spear into the side of Christ, who hangs on the central cross, his head bowed and his body slumped forward in pain. To the left, the soldier’s arm stretches upward, his face turned in concentration, while a horse’s head emerges from the lower corner, its mane rendered with energetic brushstrokes. On the right, another figure hangs from a cross, his body twisted away and his arms straining against the wood, his face pressed against his arm in anguish.

Below the crosses, a group of mourners gathers, their bodies enveloped in flowing drapery and their faces contorted in grief; one woman, her head covered, looks upward with clasped hands. The background is suffused with a golden, luminous haze, softening the forms and enveloping the figures in a dramatic, otherworldly light. The composition is dense and vertical, with the three crosses dominating the upper half, while the figures below are tightly grouped, their gestures and gazes leading the eye upward.

Rubens uses sweeping, fluid brushstrokes to model flesh and fabric, creating a sense of movement and emotional intensity throughout the scene. Touches of red in the soldier’s garment and the wound on Christ’s side stand out against the warm, earthy palette of ochres and browns. The paint surface appears textured and lively, with visible strokes that give the figures a sculptural quality.

A helmeted figure crouches at the foot of the central cross, his face partially hidden in shadow and his hand gripping the shaft of the spear. In the lower left corner, the flank and hindquarters of the horse are rendered with loose, sweeping lines, its head lowered and ears back. Behind the mourners on the right, a faintly outlined figure stands in the shadows, barely distinguishable from the golden background.

The upper corners of the painting are filled with a diffuse, smoky atmosphere, with no clear architectural or landscape elements visible. Light falls most strongly on the exposed torsos and drapery of the central figures, leaving the edges and background in relative darkness. The paint is applied in thin, translucent layers in some areas, allowing the underdrawing and rapid, gestural lines to show through.