Who painted The Elevation of the Cross?

• A. Rubens
• B. Gainsborough
• C. Goya
• D. Renoir

Answer: (A)

Attribution of a major Baroque religious painting. The Elevation of the Cross is a landmark Baroque work by Peter Paul Rubens, created around 1610–1611. Rubens is renowned for dramatic, muscular figures, energetic, dynamic compositions, and strong light–dark contrasts that heighten emotion. In this triptych, the moment Christ is hoisted toward the cross is rendered with a powerful diagonal sweep of figures straining and pressing forward, giving a sense of motion, weight, and spiritual intensity typical of Rubens’s religious commissions. The other artists listed come from different eras and styles—Gainsborough with 18th‑century English portraiture, Goya with Spanish Romanticism and later modern currents, Renoir with French Impressionism—so their work does not match this painting’s time, subject, or stylistic hallmarks.