Christ driving the Traders from the Temple

Christ driving the money-changers and traders from the Temple (John 2:13–16) was a subject that combined the energy of a crowd scene with a sharp theological and ethical charge. The episode demonstrated Christ's authority over the Temple establishment and was read by Counter-Reformation theologians as a model for the purification of the Church from corruption. Cavallino's 1647 version at the National Gallery in London is one of his most significant works in a British public institution, acquired as part of the National Gallery's systematic collection of European Baroque painting. The subject required more figures and more dynamic action than Cavallino's usual intimate format, testing his ability to orchestrate multiple bodies in various states of flight and confrontation. His treatment likely strikes a balance between the violent energy the scene demands and the controlled elegance characteristic of his style, producing a Cleansing of the Temple that reads as moral drama rather than mere crowd disorder.

Multi-figure composition in a larger format than Cavallino's typical cabinet pieces. The architectural setting—the Temple interior with columns or arches—provides spatial structure for the crowd's dispersal. Christ's figure at the centre receives the strongest directional light, his whip or cord the compositional axis around which the fleeing figures rotate.