Ecce Homo
- unknown artist
Unknown artist, Ecce Homo, 1600s. Oil paint on canvas surrounded by a period gold estofado technique frame; 21 × 19⅜ in. Gift of the Stapleton Foundation of Latin American Colonial Art, made possible by the Renchard family, 1990.349.
This arresting painting depicts a scourged Christ after the flagellation and crowning with thorns. The painting highlights the physical suffering of Christ’s torture, which is brought even closer to the viewer through details like the single thorn piercing the subject’s brow. The violence and immediacy that characterize this depiction had become prevalent in Spanish painting of the late sixteenth century as a direct result of the Counter-Reformation emphasis on the humanity of Christ. This tradition of depicting Christ's human suffering crossed the Atlantic and became prevalent in religious art in the Spanish colonies.
The frame of the painting, which appears to be original, is a prime example of the estofado technique, in which the gilt frame is polychromed and then incised to reveal the gold beneath. The elaborate style and rich, saturated colors of the frame are hallmarks of workshops in the area of Popayán, Colombia.
-- Michael A. Brown and Julie Wilson Frick, 2013