The Flagellation of Christ
Details
The story
In the mid-1650s Costanza Pamphili Ludovisi, a niece of Pope Innocent X, gave Carlo Maratta the whole Chapel of the Crucifix in Sant'Isidoro, the church of the Irish Franciscans in Rome. Between 1655 and 1657 he painted its frescoes, its altarpiece of the Crucifixion and two canvases for the side walls, the Road to Calvary and this Flagellation.
The museum points out how the picture holds two currents of Roman painting together. Christ's body is idealised on the model of ancient statues, while the hard light and the lunging pose of his tormentor supply the drama.
During the French occupation of Rome under Napoleon the side canvases were taken out of the church and went separate ways. This one surfaced in Sicily, in a collection in Catania, and reached Boston in 1983. Its companion, the Road to Calvary, is in the New Cathedral of Salamanca in Spain.
