The Mocking of Christ

Albrecht Dürer · ca. 1508
The Met, New York

This woodcut of the Small Passion, cut about 1508, shows the night after the hearing before the high priest.

Jesus sits with a cloth tied over his eyes. A man in a turban pulls at his head, a young man blows a horn at his ear, another raises his hand to slap him, and two men kneel in front in mock homage.

From the text

Jesus blindfolded (Luke 22:64)

Men striking and mocking him: “Prophesy! Who hit You?” (Luke 22:63–64)

The artist’s own

A horn blown at his ear, a torment invented by German Passion pictures

Kneeling mockers, borrowed from the later mocking by Pilate’s soldiers (Matthew 27:29)

Details

Blindfolded

A cloth is tied over Jesus’ eyes.

The horn

A young man blows a horn at his ear.

Ready to slap

A man at the right raises his hand.

Mock homage

A man kneels in front of him.

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Gift of Junius Spencer Morgan, 1919; acc. 19.73.184) · Woodcut · Public Domain — The Met Open Access (CC0). The Met Collection API record: "isPublicDomain": true; The Met marks such works on its website "with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) icon".