Golgotha

Čermák lived in Rome in the years 1865-1867. At first he rented a studio on Via della Purificazzione near the Villa Ludovisi, later he moved to Via Condotti. He studied old masters and was on friendly terms with Czech artists - the sculptors Ludvík Šimek and Václav Levý and the painter František Sequens. While in Rome he painted the biblical scene of Christ's Crucifixion, which he conceived as a grandiose panoramatic composition with a throng of soldiers and onlookers. The light streaming down from a large dark cloud illuminates crucified Christ. Čermák painted this picture for his sister Marie, duchess Czartoryska. It was exhibited for the first time in Vienna, a year after the painter's death, in Prague for the last time in 1928 at a large exhibition of Čermák's lifework.