The Flagellation of Christ (Cimabue)

No bigger than a page, this small panel once formed half of a portable diptych - a hinged two-leaf altarpiece for private prayer. It shows the scourging of Christ before his crucifixion, when Pilate had him bound to a column and whipped (John 19:1); two tormentors swing back to strike, his pale body a quiet curve between them against the gold. It is among the very few surviving works attributed to Cimabue, whom the poet Dante named the leading painter of his day - just before, Dante wrote, his pupil Giotto eclipsed his fame. The panel belongs to the last great flowering of the Byzantine manner in Italy.