Baroque Analysis: Caravaggio's Ecce Homo

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In the Gospel of John, 19:5, Pontius Pilate displays Christ to the crowd with the words "Ecce homo!", meaning "behold the man". In this scene taken from the New Testament, Christ is shown wearing a crown of thorns, and is being mockingly robed like a king by his tormentors.  Caravaggio's depiction of the scene was commissioned by Cardinal Massimo Massimi as part of an unannounced contest between three artists. The contract for the commission of Ecce Homo was signed June 25, 1605 and was intended to have been delivered by August of the same year, but it is still undetermined if the painting was delivered on time to the Cardinal, as Caravaggio would find himself in some legal trouble towards the end of the summer he had been commissioned. Painted in oil on canvas, as were most of his work, Caravaggio is credited with having heavily influence on the Baroque style with his extremely naturalistic depictions of biblical stories. Today, the piece is housed in the Palazzo Bianco in Genoa.

The Council of Trent was a synod of the Catholic Church which began to meet in 1545 with the goal of reforming the church after repeated attacks by Protestants over the course of a few decades. Images and artwork became a point of contention as Protestants would proclaim that to worship or speak to images of holy figures was inappropriate and idolatrous. Catholics, however, would go on to decide that images were of utmost importance, as their "proper" depiction of images would entail devotion to holy text's depiction of scenes, and would thus be of paramount importance in teaching and practicing Catholicism to a largely illiterate population. In simpler words, the artwork of the era was to avoid eroticism and grandeur, especially in depictions of holy figures; religious artwork should not inspire sin. These images would be retained particularly in places of worship, and due honor and veneration should be shown to them. This can be seen in Caravaggio's Ecce Homo as well as his numerous other pieces from the era. His subjects tend to be directly derivative of their accompanying bible stories and rely on naturalism rather than grandeur to convey the emotion and tone of the piece.

Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro is what makes his work instantly recognizable. His figures are set against a dark background and lit by a single source. This creates a heavy contrast between light and dark, illuminating the subject like an actor in a spotlight. The strikingly bright Christ figure is what drew me most to this painting as I was browsing pieces from the era to write about. Caravaggio's humans are impressively realistic, and this painting almost appears like a photograph, though somehow even more visually intriguing. The emotion on the faces of the three men help to communicate the tone of the story the painting was derived from. The viewer will quickly understand feelings of sympathy for Christ, who appears sad or resigned to his fate. Granted, my knowledge on the bible is quite limited as it is, and people of the era would've had a much quicker recognition and understanding for what is truly going on. Regardless, I think this piece is gorgeous.

References

“All About Ecce Homo by Caravaggio.” Carter Art, https://www.carterart.art/. 

Brandon. “Ecce Homo by Caravaggio - Facts & History of the Painting.” Totally History, 14 Apr. 2013, https://totallyhistory.com/ecce-homo/. 

“Ecce Homo.” Ecce Homo by Caravaggio, https://www.caravaggio.net/ecce-homo/. 

Kilroy-Ewbank, Dr. Lauren, and Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank. “The Council of Trent and the Call to Reform Art.” Smarthistory, https://smarthistory.org/the-council-of-trent-and-the-call-to-reform-art/. 


Comments

  1. John SlowiakOctober 17, 2022 at 10:44 AM

    Since writing about some of his pieces in my own blog, Caravaggio just becomes more and more fascinating to me. I'm not a religious person, but growing up Catholic, this image invokes some level of emotion in me. There's a lot of reading and discussing of the word, but visual representations like 'Ecce homo' add a new dimension to the way we interpret the Christ and his suffering. I love Caravaggio's style in the painting as well. With the Baroque era comes tenebrism, the use of darkness to contrast with the rest of the items in the painting. This creates a necessary level of drama, something critical for such an important biblical scene. This ties in well with the state of the Catholic church in the early 1600s, on the rise following the Council of Trent but leading into the Thirty Years' War in a decade.

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