エッケ・ホモ

Titian signed and dated this Ecce Homo in 1543, and it was not made for a church. A wealthy Flemish merchant living in Venice, Giovanni d'Anna, commissioned it for his palace, which is why it reads almost like a piece of theatre. Pilate leads the beaten Christ out onto a grand staircase and presents him to the crowd with the words 'Behold the man.' Titian filled the scene with people he knew. The sharp, sneering face of Pilate is said to be his close friend the writer Pietro Aretino, and the fair-haired girl near the centre, in white satin, has long been claimed as the painter's own daughter Lavinia. Setting a sacred moment among the faces of contemporary Venice was exactly what a private patron of the 1540s wanted on his wall.