Christ Presented to the People (Ecce Homo)

Ecce Homo

The Latin words are Pilate's, in the nineteenth chapter of John: behold the man. Having scourged the prisoner and let the soldiers crown him, the governor brings him out to the crowd, expecting the sight to be enough. It is not, and the demand for crucifixion follows. The episode is a presentation rather than an action — a figure displayed, a magistrate speaking, a crowd answering.

Where it falls

Between the crowning with thorns and the sentence. It is the last scene before the road to Calvary, and the last point at which the outcome is formally open. Only two titles in this catalogue name the Ecce Homo directly, which understates how often the moment appears, since many entries carry it under other names.

The record

The catalogue names Correggio, dates the work to 1530, and places it in the National Gallery, London — one of thirteen entries here in that collection. It measures 100.3 by 78.7 centimetres, upright and roughly life size at half length. The style is entered as Mannerism and late Renaissance and the artist as Italian; the subject fields class the work as a male figure and as religious. The measured palette reads as ochre and yellow. No commission or provenance appears in the entry.