Christ Presented to the People ('Ecce Homo')
About this artwork
Pontius Pilate presents Christ as a prisoner to the crowd, offering to free him. Saint Matthew’s Gospel recounts how the people chose to release Barabbas (a murderer), thereby ensuring Christ’s crucifixion. The impact of Rembrandt’s moving interpretation of the scene was made more immediate through the dramatic architectural setting and the emotional reactions of the assorted onlookers. Rembrandt was a gifted etcher sensitive to the descriptive power of line from delicate contours to deep shadow. He often reworked his designs, adding detail to the copper plate in drypoint. This print is in its fifth state; in other words the composition has been adapted five times by the artist.
Updated before 2020
see media-
artist:Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn) (1606 - 1669) Dutch
-
title:Christ Presented to the People ('Ecce Homo')
-
date created:1655
-
materials:Drypoint
-
measurements:Plate mark: 35.80 x 45.50 cm (cut at the top removing the architrave)
-
object type:
-
credit line:Accepted by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated through Art Fund, 1992
-
accession number:P 2878
-
gallery:
-
depicted:
-
subject:
Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn)
Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn)
Rembrandt is perhaps the most renowned, influential and inventive of all Dutch artists. In his oil paintings, he represented a wide range of subjects, including single portraits, group portraits, self-portraits and biblical and mythological scenes. He explored the dramatic potential of light and...