1658, Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), The Flagellation of Christ -- Palazzo Barberini (Rome)
From the museum label: Intended to be monumental in scale, this large canvas - commissioned by Cardinal Lorenzo Imperiali and donated to Pope Alexander VII (born Fabio Chigi) - shows Jesus tied to a column to be whipped. One of his persecutors challenges and insults him by grabbing him by the hair while the other tightens the knots in the ropes as a crowd of spectators, both soldiers and curious bystanders, watch from below.
The moment he has chosen to portray, clearly not coincidental, shortly before Jesus is actually whipped, helps to intensify the pathos of the wait, as well as call attention to the whip itself, the shape and specific features of which recall the well-known relic that was brought to Rome from the Holy Land in 1223 and venerated in the Church of Saint Praxedes.
1658, Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), The Flagellation of Christ -- Palazzo Barberini (Rome)
From the museum label: Intended to be monumental in scale, this large canvas - commissioned by Cardinal Lorenzo Imperiali and donated to Pope Alexander VII (born Fabio Chigi) - shows Jesus tied to a column to be whipped. One of his persecutors challenges and insults him by grabbing him by the hair while the other tightens the knots in the ropes as a crowd of spectators, both soldiers and curious bystanders, watch from below.
The moment he has chosen to portray, clearly not coincidental, shortly before Jesus is actually whipped, helps to intensify the pathos of the wait, as well as call attention to the whip itself, the shape and specific features of which recall the well-known relic that was brought to Rome from the Holy Land in 1223 and venerated in the Church of Saint Praxedes.