TO UNDERSTAND THE SCENE

The first mocking by the High Priest’s guards in Caiphas’ house, on the premises of the Sanhedrin.

Jesus wears a large gown. Blindfolded, with his hands tied up, he is scoffed at by his torturers who spit at him and smack him. The presence of musicians is sometimes meant to suggest that the spectators make a lot of noise.

The flagellation

Jesus is flogged; he is always standing, covered with a tunic or naked. His torturers are brutes, one of them strikes him; the other two prepare some rods. Jesus is tied to a column generally high and thin, sometimes small and squat; which changes the part of the body receiving the blows. Pilate sometimes attends the torture.

Christ mocked; Hieronymus BOSCH; c. 1490-1500; oil on wood; National Gallery, London.

Web Gallery of Art

The Gospel according to Luke, chapter 22

Jesus has just been condemned by the High Priest Caiphas

And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him.

And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?
(Luke 22:63-64)

Jesus is then sent to Pilate who, not finding any reason to condemn him to death, has him flogged.

The Gospel according to John, chapter 19

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands…

Then Jesus came forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. (John 19:1-6)

Comment

Physical and moral tortures accompanied condemnations either to make the accused speak or to prepare his execution. Here they take on a prophetic character since Jesus is mocked at as prophet and as king though he is truly Prophet and King.

In the same way, Pilate’s phrase “Behold the man” ‘”ecce homo” in Latin) takes on a particular dimension since Jesus is God made Man.

The Passion

The word is derived from the Latin verb “pati” which means “to suffer”. It is used to express physical suffering and pain and, with a capital letter, it designates the torture undergone by Christ. It was only later that the word was used to speak of a moral pain caused by love or simply by a violent affection.

But the scene is not a mere physical torture, it is a mockery, a derision and an inversion. During Carnival, the fool is crowned king; here it is the King who becomes the Fool mocked at until his tragic death. This explains the to and fro movement between the carnivalesque representations and those of tortured Christ disguised as king.

The instruments of the Passion

A certain number of instruments of torture are differentiated and become the emblems of the Passion of Christ; they are often placed on the cross.

Among these instruments, the crown of thorns has taken a great part in France after King Louis declared he had brought back its relic that he placed in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, a sort of reliquary of glass and stone.

In 1806, the relic of the crown of thorns was transferred to Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.

The name “passion flower” or passiflora has been given to a plant coming from Brazil. Its symbolic value struck friars in the 16^th century. One can actually see in it the three nails of the cross, mauve as if stained with blood and a crown surrounded by filaments suggesting thorns; moreover its fruit contains grains red like blood…

A word still extant in French

When Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd they answered “Away with this man” (Luke 23:18) or “tolle” in Latin; the French word “tollé” has become usual to designate an outcry of indignation or excitement.