エッケ・ホモ

Antonello worked in the first half of the 1470s, at the moment oil painting was crossing from Flanders into Italy, and few artists understood the new medium as well as he did. Here he uses it to bring the suffering Christ shockingly close. This is an Ecce Homo, Christ shown to the crowd after his scourging, crowned with thorns and roped at the neck. Antonello paints the tears, the drops of blood, and every separate hair of the beard with a patience that makes the face feel physically present, meant to be prayed before at arm's length. It was made for private devotion, and has belonged to the Collegio Alberoni in Piacenza since 1761.