The Mocking of Christ

Christ sits on a stone block with a white cloth tied over his eyes. A man leaning in from behind pulls the knot tight, while another lifts an open hand to strike. Luke's Gospel describes the scene as a cruel guessing game. The men holding Jesus that night blindfolded him, beat him and kept asking him to prophesy who had hit him. The painter folds in a second mockery from later in the story. A man in a helmet drops to one knee in sham homage, and a long reed slants down to the prisoner's bound wrists, held by a guard in a mail shirt. Matthew tells how the governor's soldiers put a reed in his hand like a sceptre and knelt before him. Amid all this movement, Jesus keeps his head lowered and his tied hands folded in his lap.