Third Sunday of Lent - Christ Before Pilate

Title: Christ before Pilate
Artist: Jacopo Tintoretto
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 515 x 380 cm
Date: 1566-67
Location: Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice.

Matthew 27:12-26 - When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him. While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered. “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. “Crucify him!” They all answered. “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

This part of Matthew's account has less to do with Jesus than with Pilate: it is not Jesus but the character of Pilate that is on trial. Though Pilate knows the unjust motivation of the charges and receives a divine warning, political expediency takes precedence over justice. Are we also guilty of the same crime whenever we side with views because they are popular in our society or political party even though we know that someone is suffering unjustly? The hearing is swift not only because Pilate is more concerned with his political position than with justice, but also because Jesus refuses to defend himself. By Roman law, a defendant who refused to make a defense was assumed guilty.

Tintoretto (September 1518 – May 1594) also known as Jacopo Robusti or Jacopo Comin, was an Italian painter and a notable exponent of the Venetian Renaissance school. Tintoretto decorated the walls of the Sala dell'Albergo by paintings showing important moments from the Passion of Christ and he finished them in the early months of 1567.The most admired has always been Christ before Pilate. In a very fine and measured luministic web the figure of Christ, wrapped in a white mantle, stands out like a shining blade against the crowd and the architectural scenery. He is centered by a bright ray of light and stands tall in front of Pilate who is portrayed in red robes and as if sunk in shadows. Taking up the idea of Carpaccio in his St Ursula cycle, Tintoretto portraits the old secretary at the foot of Pilate's throne. He leans against a stool covered with dark green cloth and with great diligent enthusiasm notes down every moment, every word spoken by the judge amid the murmurings of the pitiless crowd which obstinately clamors for the death of Christ.

The Crucifixion of Christ

Title: The Crucifixion of Christ
Artist: Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 341 x 371 cm
Date: 1568
Location: San Cassiano, Venice.

John 19:19-22 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

Common practice was to have those sentenced to crucifixion carry signs indicating the cause of their punishment, or to have others carry the signs for the accused. The title Pilate has written continues to goad the Jewish leaders, and they insist that he change it. But for the first time he stands firm against them, and John seems to suggest this title over the cross was itself a form of witness to Israel and the world. Pilate unwittingly made such a proclamation, of course, as was the case with his having chosen the title itself. Such features fit with John's theme that all is working out according to God's will. So here we have another irony: the man who does not have a clue about the truth proclaims, unwittingly, the truth about Jesus. And we have the tragedy of the representatives of the one true God, who should have recognized the truth, continuing to reject it.

Tintoretto (September, 1518 – May, 1594) also known as Jacopo Robusti or Jacopo Comin, was an Italian painter and a notable exponent of the Venetian Renaissance school. His father, Giovanni, was a dyer, or tintore; hence the son got the nickname of Tintoretto, little dyer, or dyer's boy. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso. Indeed, fellow Venetian master Sebastiano del Piombo remarked that Tintoretto could paint in two days as much as himself in two years. Like Titian, Tintoretto kept a huge workshop, his chief assistants being his sons Domenico and Marco, and his daughter Marietta. Domenico became his foreman and is said to have painted many portraits, although none can be attributed to him with certainty.

Crucify Him!

Title: Crucify Him!
Artist: Ivan Glazunov
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: tbd.
Date: 1994
Location: tbd.

John 19:12-16 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate asked, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar” Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

Jesus has just borne witness to the truth about himself, his Father, Pilate and the opponents. He has made Pilate even more uncomfortable, so Pilate begins to make further efforts to release him. The Jewish leaders counter these efforts with a decisive move--they bring in the issue of Pilate's loyalty to Caesar. It is, of course, highly ironic that Pilate's loyalty to Caesar should be threatened by Jews, members of the most disloyal and unruly section of the empire. Pilate is being humiliated by them. He knows he must give in to their wishes, but he is wily enough to humiliate them also in the process. Upon hearing their threat, he brings Jesus out and sits on the judge's seat (bema) to pass judgment. Such a choice between Jesus and other ultimate concerns in our lives faces each of us, for Jesus really is King and insists on complete loyalty as strongly as Tiberius. Pilate is faced with a choice of kings, and he does not choose wisely.

Ivan Glazunov (b. 1969) is a contemporary Russian painter. He is the son of noted Russian painter and teacher Ilya Glazunov, and has carried on his fathers traditions becoming a full professor at the Russian Academy of Painting and Architecture. He is regarded as a leader of the new generation of the artists of Russian realism, the continuer of the traditions of Old-Russian painting, religious and historical. Among his may prestigious projects was his participation in the restoration of the large Kremlin palace. In the antechamber, that adjoins the Aleksandrovsk and Andreev's halls of the Kremlin, Glazunov created the brilliant gallery of the portraits of Russian tsars, who created the Russian state. More of his work in various genres can be seen on his website http://ivanglazunov.ru/gallery .

Ecce Homo

Title: Ecce Homo
Artist: Domenico Feti
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 137 x 113 cm
Date: 1605
Location: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

John 19:4-11 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

Often in this Gospel we see people who are mistaken about Jesus and his teaching because they are viewing reality solely in this-worldly categories, for example, the woman of Samaria (chap. 4). Jesus has used their misunderstandings to help these people come to a better view of reality, and that is what he now does with Pilate also: You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Pilate well understands that his power is dependent on the one who is over him, the emperor. He could understand Jesus to be saying nothing more than this. But now that Pilate realizes Jesus is claiming to be a son of God he has a chance to interpret Jesus correctly, to understand that God is the source of this power. Indeed, Jesus' reference to from above gives Pilate a hint as to the answer to his question of where Jesus is from. Thus this is a saying that tests Pilate's heart. Will he hear it correctly?

Domenico Fetti (also spelled Feti) (c. 1589 – 1623) was an Italian Baroque painter born in Rome. He studied under Ludovico Cigoli, was court painter to Vincenzo Gonzaga at Mantua from 1613 to 1622, and then settled in Venice. Working in the out-of-the-way location of Mantua allowed him to develop a highly original style of painting where a variety of different influences blended together. He trained during the last days of Mannerism, but he was influenced decisively by Rubens' arrival in Italy. His dialogue with Rubens and more generally his interest in Flemish and Dutch painting gave rise to a rich and luminous way with his brushstrokes. Feti, who was also an excellent portraitist, was one of a group of non-Venetian artists (including the German Liss and the Genoan Strozzi) who revivified painting in the city when there was a scarcity of native talent. Consequently, he is often classed as a member of the Venetian School, even though he spent only the last two years of his life there.

Christ Presented to the People

Title: Christ Presented to the People
Artist: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
Medium: Drypoint on paper
Size: 39.1 x 45.4 cm
Date: 1655
Location: Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis.

John 18:28-40 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” They replied, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” They objected: “But we have no right to execute anyone.” This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus asked, “Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?” Pilate replied, ““Am I a Jew? Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Pilate said, “You are a king, then!” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Pilate retorted “What is truth?” With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

Silhouetted by a dark arch, the three protagonists, Pontius Pilate, Christ, and Barabbas, stand on the podium before a large civic building. Rembrandt captures the moment when Pilate, pointing towards Christ, asks the assembles crowd the question: "What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all shout back, "Let Him be crucified!" Surrounded by an extraordinary architectural setting, soldiers, and the surge of the crowd below him, Christ looks helpless and isolated. This is one of Rembrandt's most celebrated prints because of its size, rarity, and complex composition. It is one of the few that Rembrandt did exclusively in drypoint, a process in which a sharp point is used to scratch a line directly into the copperplate.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 1606 – October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history, his work contributing to a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age. Rembrandt produced etchings for most of his career, from 1626 to 1660, when he was forced to sell his printing-press and virtually abandoned etching. Only the troubled year of 1649 produced no dated work. Despite Rembrandt's financial success as an artist, teacher, and art dealer, his penchant for ostentatious living forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1656.

Joseph of Arimathea Seeks Pilate

Title: Joseph of Arimathea Seeks Pilate to Beg Permission to Remove the Body of Jesus

Artist: James Tissot

Medium: Watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper

Size: 22.7 x 30.8 cm

Date: c. 1890

Location: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.

Mark 15:42-45 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.

That the Jewish Council included pious members like Joseph, and not just the sort who appeared at Jesus’ trial, fits the known diversity within the aristocracy of the period. That Pilate granted his request to remove the body is also remarkable; it was exceedingly rare that victims of crucifixion were given a proper burial, but it may have been the unorthodox request of a pious Council member like Joseph that persuaded Pilate.

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (October 15, 1836 – August 8, 1902) was a French painter who enjoyed a successful artistic career in Paris and London painting society. While visiting the church of Saint-Sulpice, he experienced a religious vision and began work on drawings of the life of Christ, which debuted In Paris in 1896. Tissot created his precisely rendered watercolors of the life of Christ with the same meticulous attention to detail that he had applied to painting society. He strove for historical authenticity, making expeditions to the Middle East to record the landscape, architecture, costumes, and customs of the Holy Land.

Ecce Homo

Title: Ecce Homo

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 162.5 x 130 cm

Date: c. 1851

Location: Museum Folkwang, Essen.

Mark 15:6-14 Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

"What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them.

"Crucify him!" they shouted.

"Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!"

The custom at feast to release a prisoner is unattested to in the surviving historical record, but some scholars note that it would fit the culture of the time. A similar incident was recorded in 85 AD whereby a governor in Egypt handed someone over to the ‘multitudes’.

Daumier’s ‘Ecce Homo’, the largest canvas of the artist, strikes a very formal tone in its structure and its coloring. With anonymous masses pushing towards the judgment block, a bold foreshortening of the figures of Pilate and Jesus, from whom emanates a holy light, recalls Goya’s or Rembrant’s compositions. The figure of Christ, isolated against the opinions of the masses and the rulers, is a theme which speaks of Daumier’s view of the artist in society, especially in the 19th century.

Honoré Daumier (February 26, 1808 – February 10, 1879) was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century. A prolific draftsman who produced over 4000 lithographs, he was perhaps best known for satirical and political drawings in the magazines Caricature (1831-1835) and Charivari (from 1832). It was only in 1878 that Daumier presented himself to the public as a painter, with a wide range of works in an exhibition organized by Paul Durand-Ruel.

Christ before Pilate

Title: Christ before Pilate

Artist: Hans Multscher

Medium: Panel

Size: 148 x 140 cm

Date: 1437

Location: Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

Mark 15:1-5 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

"Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate.

"You say so." Jesus replied.

The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, "Aren't you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of."

But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

The whole of the Sanhedrin, depicted as a grotesque menagerie in this panel, had obviously accused Jesus of declaring himself Messiah, “King of the Jews”. Such a declaration could easily lead to a charge of sedition and treason against the Emperor. Some scholars have pointed out that When Pilate asks Jesus "Are you the king of the Jews?" we should probably hear a mocking emphasis on the word “you”. Would Pilate really believe a bound and beaten Jewish peasant was claiming the be king? Conversely, we should probably hear Jesus’ response with an equally mocking emphasis on the same word : “You say so”.

This panel is one of several making up the Wurzach Altarpiece by Hans Multscher (ca. 1400, Reichenhofen/Allgau, d. 1467, Ulm), considered among the most important 15th-century German paintings. Multscher was a German sculptor active in Ulm, who was trained in the Netherlands or northern France. Paintings were integral to his altarpieces, but it is a matter for debate to what extent he practiced painting himself. The Wurzach altar, the only painting attributed to him by some experts, exhibits a realism nearer to contemporary Flemish rather than German painting.

Ecce Homo

Title: Ecce Homo

Artist: Unknown master (Portugal)

Medium: Oil on wood

Size: 89 x 65 cm

Date: c. 1550

Location: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon.

After a mob had chanted for his crucifixion, Pilate had Jesus led away where he was mocked, and beaten by soldiers. Then, as recounted in John 19:4-6: Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!" As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!" But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him."

In the garb of a mock king, Jesus has been portrayed to the mob not as a true king but as a harmless fool. Even his title “man” contrasts ironically with the Jewish charge: “God’s Son”. But his enemies insist he be crucified because, in part, it would signify that Jesus is accursed by God. In John's Gospel the focus is on Jesus as the revealer of God. His opponents have rejected that claim and desire his death in order to vindicate their conclusion.

Ecce Homo is a surprising depiction of Pilate’s presentation of Jesus. The figure of Jesus is detached from the deep black background by the insertion of a gold aureole, a transition between a plain abstraction and the human figure. Christ is shrouded by a white cloth that half covers his nudity yet is still punctuated by the crown of thorns. Though bloody and beaten, tied by neck and wrist, it is, paradoxically, the hidden gaze of Christ that draws the eye and most intensifies the image. This portrait shows Jesus in both his most human and most divine aspects. This religious motif is not readily identifiable in European painting other than in Portuguese pictorial production beginning in the fifteenth century.

What is Truth? (Christ and Pilate)

Title: What is Truth? (Christ and Pilate)

Artist: Nikolai Ge

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 233 x 171 cm

Date: 1890

Location: The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

After the Romans along with the temple police had arrested Jesus, he was brought before the Governor. He was questioned by Pontius Pilate who stated: “So you are a king,” And when Jesus replies that he was born into this world to tell the truth, Pilate asks “What is truth?” before pronouncing “I don’t find this man guilty of anything!” Some have held that this question of Pilate's was asked in scorn, but his conduct throughout the trial shows that he was impressed.

In the 1880s, the themes of Christ and the Gospels resurfaced in Ge’s work. Unlike the "new hero" figure portrayed by many of his contemporaries, however, the figure of Jesus in Ge's paintings reflects a deeper, personal psyche. What is Truth (Christ and Pilate) was removed from exhibition under pressure from the Church. Although Ge was inspired by genuine religious feeling, his mute, haggard Jesus offended some.

Nikolai Nikolayevich Ge (27 February 1831 – 13 June 1894), a Russian artist, was born into a noble family of French origin. His parents died when he was young and he was raised by his serf nurse, who taught him compassion for the humiliated and a keen sense of other people’s sorrows. Ge entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1850, graduating in 1857 with a Major Gold Medal for his picture The Witch of Endor Calling up the Spirit of the Prophet Samuel. He traveled extensively over the next dozen years, finally settling in St. Petersburg in 1870 where he became one of the founders of the Peredvizhniki, the Society of Traveling Art Exhibitions.