Caravaggio 1573 – 1610

The Flagellation [1]

oil on canvas (286 × 213 cm) — 1607 Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

Caravaggio biography

This work is linked to John 19:1

One of the flagellators ties Jesus to the pillar, another holds him by the hair. A third man is preparing his whip, increasing the ominous atmosphere of the painting. There is a sense of rhythm in this composition: one can almost see the figures move.

Caravaggio made this painting during his first stay in Naples. Until 1972 it hung in the family chapel of the man who commissioned the work, Tommasso de' Franchis. Not much later he made another painting featuring the flagellattion.

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