The Flagellation of Christ

The Flagellation of Christ from 1452, in the Small Passion cycle at the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, shows Christ bound to the column while soldiers beat him — the prelude to the Crowning with Thorns and eventually the Crucifixion. The Flagellation was theologically significant as the moment at which Christ's physical suffering reaches its first climax, and it was among the most systematically depicted episodes in Passion cycles across all media — panels, altarpieces, and the printed devotional books that disseminated Passion imagery to a literate lay audience. The Master of the Small Passion's version follows northern European conventions in rendering the scene with a directness that balances compassion and discomfort.

Tempera on panel. The standard Flagellation composition places Christ vertically at the column with the tormentors flanking him. The 1452 date is the same as the Karlsruhe Gethsemane panel, suggesting these panels were produced within the same campaign.