
The Flagellation of Christ
1460 · Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino
Christ is scourged in the middle distance while three men talk in the foreground, indifferent. Nobody has settled who they are or why.
★ 8.2

Christ is scourged in the middle distance while three men talk in the foreground, indifferent. Nobody has settled who they are or why.

The trees behind Christ turn from bare to leafing across the panel. In 1944 a British officer held his guns rather than shell the town.

Mantegna carved the rock like an engraver while Judas already leads the soldiers down the road. His brother-in-law Bellini painted the same scene, softer.