After doing the preliminary sketch for this painting, I learned that J. S. Bach, in his particular lexicon, had a musical figure to represent fear: two voices advancing in parallel, as if one were leaning on the other. This is what occurs in this painting; when the burden of pain seems about to crush its bearer, the sufferer somehow manages to carry on, perhaps by seeking the support of one with a similar burden... who is, in turn, the only one capable of understanding and consoling.
To console in this way is in effect to suffer along with another, to put oneself in the place of the sufferer, to share the other’s misfortune, feel it, hurt from it.