What's going on in that cave exactly?

Strange how a Middle Eastern child bride who was likely a brown-skinned brunette with Semitic features and also was likely raped by a Roman soldier and had to lie to her husband that she was immaculately pregnant to avoid being beheaded is portrayed across the world as a white blonde haired blue eyed Anglo-European.

Question, maybe off topic. But Mary’s clutching a cross here. Was a cross already a symbol by the time Jesus died on one? It’s a tool of torture and death. If someone I loved died by stabbing, I wouldn’t lie around like that with a knife.

I'm always impressed by how well some artists can blend oils like this