Lucas van Leyden: The Large Ecce Homo (1510)

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA)

A beautiful engraving by the Dutch artist Lucas van Leyden (1494-1533). The depicted scene is a so-called 'Ecce Homo' (Latin for 'behold, the man') - the presentation of the scourged Jesus Christ with the crown of thorns, prior to his Crucifixion. According to the bible:

1. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 
2. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 
3. and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
4. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 
5. When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6. As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”

(John 19:1-6)

Although the orginal scene took place in Jerusalem, Lucas van Leyden shows it in an imaginary city. engraving from 1510.