Jesus stands tied to the column, his hands behind him.
Bible in art · John
The Flagellation
Albrecht Dürer · c. 1497–1510
The Cleveland Museum of Art
The Flagellation belongs to the first group of Large Passion woodcuts, cut about 1497–1500, not long after Dürer’s first journey to Italy.
Jesus stands tied to a thick column in a hall hung with a curtain. Men with rods and scourges press round him, one kneels to pull the cords tight, and a man in a rich patterned robe watches from the left.
From the text
- Pilate having Jesus flogged (John 19:1)
- Flogged before he was handed over to be crucified (Matthew 27:26)
The artist’s own
- The column: the Gospels do not say how he was bound — painters followed an old custom
- A boy blowing a horn and a little dog in the hall
- The crown of thorns already lying on the floor, ready for the next scene
Details
At the column
Grimacing
A man in a net cap leans in, grimacing.
Pulling the cords
A man kneels and pulls the cords tight with both hands.
The crown waiting
The crown of thorns lies on the floor.
Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in memory of Ralph King, 1926.115) · Woodcut · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).