Cristo come uomo dei dolori

Albrecht Durer painted this around 1493, when he was only about twenty-two and still a travelling journeyman, years before the prints that would make him famous across Europe. It is a small panel, barely a foot high. Christ sits after the scourging, the crown of thorns on his head and his wounds bleeding, resting his chin on one hand in the old pose of exhaustion and grief. What Durer does that feels new is to let Christ look straight out, eyes open and meeting yours, instead of sunk in his own pain. The soft handling still echoes Martin Schongauer, the great engraver the young Durer had travelled to study with, only to arrive and find that Schongauer had recently died.