In a woodcut from The Large Passion, a very tall Christ carries the cross outside the gates of a 15th-century German town. In Dürer's time, portraying events with historically accurate architecture and clothing wasn't important, said Heller. "It's only later, once travel becomes a lot easier in the 17th and 18th centuries when more people go to the Holy Land and start trying to find the biblical sites and looking at archaeology. I think it was more important to show that these scenes are relevant to us, meaning their beholders at the time in their society, than to be historically accurate."

This woodcut also shows Dürer's use of extrabiblical texts and traditions. Biblical accounts of the crucifixion tell about Jesus carrying the cross to Golgotha, outside Jerusalem; about the soldiers forcing Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross; about the loudly grieving crowds and Jesus' warning to the crying women along his route. Medieval tradition added details featured in the Stations of the Cross about Jesus falling (depicted here) and specific women he encountered on the way.