The Flagellation

In the Gospel of John two scenes follow one another without a break. Pilate has Jesus flogged, the punishment Roman practice inflicted before a crucifixion, and then the soldiers plait a crown of thorns and press it onto his head. Both moments are in the Capitoline's collection as canvases by Domenico Tintoretto, this Flagellation and a Crowning with Thorns, and they came from the same Roman family collection, that of the Pio, together with a Baptism of Christ by the same hand. The museum notes that the three are close in size and in their imagery, enough to suggest that they were painted as parts of a single series.