My prior Art posts can be found HERE.
How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it..
Let’s study art history together.
Christ at the Column
| Artist | Caravaggio |
|---|---|
| Year | =c. 1606-1607 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 134.5 cm × 175.4 cm (53.0 in × 69.1 in) |
| Location | Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen |
This brilliant work of religious art by Caravaggio is both impressively photorealistic, and also filled with symbolism and story-telling. Given the subject matter, it’s not a light-hearted piece. However, it is certainly something you might meditate upon – perhaps during Holy Week or while praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.
The artist makes a very interesting choice in more or less removing most of the background, allowing it to be dark. This elevates the importance of the elements we do see – which are highlighted by a source of light coming from outside the frame and to the left. Primarily we see Christ, the faces of his torturers, and the hand holding the whip (the whip is outside the frame on the right.) The painting feels very uncomfortably intimate.
Christ is leaned forward, with a look of calm acceptance or resignation on His face. In contrast, the two men scourging him look tense. The man in the middle, holding the whip, seems to have a look of anger while the man on the right – in my opinion – seems to be in some degree of turmoil, with a furrowed brow and some measure of concern in his eyes. As a side note, if you are familiar with Caravaggio’s work, you’ll likely recognize this man from other paintings.
The hand holding the whip looks almost disembodied. Even though we see the face of the man whose hand this is, the hand feels like a separate character in this story, due to the way the painter chose to use shadow and light. It’s also detached form the whip itself due to the whip being beyond the frame of the work. To me this suggests the act being done by the hand is in some sense detached from him and guided by some other force.
for more on the painting via wiki:
Christ at the Column (also known as The Flagellation of Christ), is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio, from c. 1606-1607. It is held in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, in Rouen.
History and description
This is one of two versions of the Flagellation of Christ by Caravaggio painted late in 1606 or early in 1607, soon after his arrival in Naples. The painting shows the flagellation of Christ following his arrest and trial and before his crucifixion. The scene was traditionally depicted in front of a column, possibly alluding to the judgement hall of Pilate. The snub-nosed torturer on the far right is recognisably the same figure who modelled as one of the torturers in The Flagellation of Christ, and as the executioner in Salome with the Head of John the Baptist.
The most famous treatment of the theme at the time was Sebastiano del Piombo‘s High Renaissance Flagellation of Christ in the church of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome. Piombo’s Flagellation, much imitated by later artists, shows multiple idealised figures twisting through complex layers of space. Caravaggio has flattened the space, reduced the figures to a minimum, and used light to direct attention to the crucial parts of his composition – Christ’s face and torso, the faces of the two torturers, and the hand holding the out-of-frame whip.
For a great short review of the painting, I recommend the following:
