Christ Presented to the People (Ecce Homo)

Sodoma (Giovanni Antonio Bazzi)

ca. 1540–49 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

Sodoma was trained in Lombardy, where he absorbed Leonardo da Vinci’s ideas about the use of contrasting physiognomies for heightened dramatic effect. The turbaned figure is Pilate, who presents the resigned but dignified Christ to the viewer as an object of contemplation. His clothes, like the presence of the evidently Black figure shouting at Jesus, seem to transform the Hebrew tormentors into Muslims, reflecting European anxieties about the threat posed by an expanding Ottoman Empire.

Artist

Sodoma (Giovanni Antonio Bazzi)

Date

ca. 1540–49

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Gift of Asbjorn R. Lunde, in memory of his parents, Karl and Elisa Lunde, 1996