Jesus Scourged
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Matthew 27:26
The passage
Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Matthew 27:26
About this plate
A bare stone hall. Christ is bound at a low pillar on the right, stripped to the waist, head down, already crowned. Two men stand over him with arms drawn back, and Doré draws them from behind, so what fills the left half of the plate is the musculature of a man taking a swing.
That choice is the whole picture. You are standing among the people doing it, not among the people watching. The bodies nearest to us are the ones working, and they are drawn with more anatomical attention than anything else in the frame.
The verse contains the scourging in a subordinate clause, and it is easy to miss: Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Two names, one release, one flogging, one handover. Matthew spends more words on Barabbas.
The pillar is short. He is not stretched up against a column but bent down over a block, and that detail — low, awkward, unheroic — is the truest thing in the plate.
Swipe left or right for the next plate