Christ Shown to the People

Albrecht Dürer · c. 1497–1510
The Cleveland Museum of Art

One of the early Large Passion woodcuts, cut about 1497–1500. Pilate’s words in the Latin Bible of Dürer’s time, “Ecce homo” — “Here is the man” — gave such scenes their usual name.

Jesus, crowned with thorns, stands in a doorway at the top of the steps; a man holds his robe open and Pilate, in a turban, points him out. Below, the crowd and soldiers with halberds look up and shout.

From the text

Jesus brought out wearing the crown of thorns and the robe (John 19:5)

Pilate saying, “Here is the man!” (John 19:5)

The chief priests and officers shouting, “Crucify Him!” (John 19:6)

The artist’s own

Pilate in a turban, as Dürer’s Germany pictured rulers of the East

A Gothic doorway with a carved, vine-covered post

A small boy with a stick on the steps

Details

Here is the man

Jesus stands in the doorway, crowned with thorns, his hands bound; the robe is held open behind him.

Pilate

Pilate, in a large turban, leans over the rail and points down to him.

The crowd

Below, one man throws up his arm and another stretches out a hand.

Halberds

Soldiers stand behind with tall halberds and pikes.

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in memory of Ralph King, 1926.116) · Woodcut · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

The verses

John 19:4–6Once again Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing Him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against Him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” As soon as the chief priests and officers saw Him, they shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” “You take Him and crucify Him,” Pilate replied, “for I find no basis for a charge against Him.”