Bleeding, with His hands folded and bound in front of Him and a heavy crown of thorns on His head, Jesus is sitting on a low wall. His eyes are downcast and filled with sorrowful pity. At His feet there are nails and a skull. This is Christ on the Cold Stone, a depiction of Jesus as He sits waiting at Calvary, while His executioners prepare His cross. This episode from the Passion isn’t mentioned in any of the Gospels. It is based on 14th-century tracts that focus on Christ’s suffering. This fascination for the suffering of Jesus blossomed in the late mediaeval Gothic. In his Vita Christi, Ludolph of Saxony expresses it as follows: 'It is sweeter to see You as a mortal on the cross than as the ruler of all the angels in heaven; to see You as a man, imbued with human nature from the beginning to the end, rather than as a sublime and exalted god; it is sweeter to see You as the dying Saviour than as the invincible Creator.' In His suffering, Christ becomes human, recognisable and tangible. It is then that He is closest to the believer. And it is precisely that familiarity that gives this image its power: the beholder is moved to empathy. Despite – or perhaps precisely thanks to – the fact that nothing is actually happening, the image is imbued with enormous emotion. It is a depiction of complete loneliness and abandonment, of ultimate humanity, but also of reflection and acceptance, contemplation and repentance. Statuettes such as this were possibly placed in the monastery cell as an aid to personal devotion. This most muted and restrained of images invites the beholder to contemplate – simply and silently – nothing more.