The Reviling of Christ

Hans Leonhard Schäufelein's Reviling of Christ belongs to the Nuremberg-trained painter's Passion cycle production for his Nördlingen and Swabian patrons. Schäufelein, who collaborated with Dürer on the Triumphzug of Emperor Maximilian, brought his master's influence to the more modest devotional market of south German regional centers. The Reviling or Mocking of Christ subjected the Savior to verbal and physical abuse that emphasized his willing acceptance of human contempt, the scene functioning as a meditation on humility and the reversal of worldly values that the Passion enacted.

The devotional composition is rendered with attention to the expressive and contemplative qualities that served the painting's function as an aid to prayer and meditation.