Christ before Pilate

Christ before Pilate represents the Christian passages around the judgement of Jesus Christ, prior to his crucifixion.

Pontius Pilate has been represented in a whole manner of styles by different artists in the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Both sculpture and painting have been used to depict this highly significant moment for followers of the various strands of Christianity. Ecce H*mo is the term often used instead of Christ before Pilate and most depictions from the Renaissance take that name rather than the one that we haven to Lorenzo Ghiberti's bronze panel here.

Pilate was the fifth prefect for the Roman province of Judaea. He is believed to have served the ruling Emperor Tiberius for around a decade in the very early years of AD. The north doors by Ghiberti captured perfectly the turbulent life of Jesus Christ, where he was treated as both a hero and a pariah at different stages of his life. The artist chose to address one story per panel here, where as his Gates of Paradise panels would feature several in each, always along a connected theme.

Ecce H*mo were the specific words spoken by Pontius Pilate as he presented the scourged Jesus Christ to the crowds who had gathered to learn of his fate. Caravaggio famously painted Ecce H*mo in 1605, whilst Andrea Mantegna completed an earlier version in 1500. Titian, a true Renaissance master of colour, completed Ecce H*mo between 1570 and 1576.