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Source Description

These four panels (Walters 37.665, 37.666, 37.672, and 37.673) depicting episodes from Christ's Passion were originally part of a "polyptych" or multi-paneled altarpiece commissioned by the Carthusian monastery in Buxheim, Swabia, and completed by 1500. Other panels are in Berlin and Augsburg. In Walters 37.672, we see Christ's entry into Jerusalem, with the Last Supper tucked into the upper right corner. In "The Arrest of Christ," (Walters 37.666) the emotional intensity of the scene is stressed through crowding and agitated, angular gestures. Strigel was fascinated by detail and shows accurately rendered 15th-century polearms, such as the halberd and pike, in the hands of the peasant mob around Christ. In this piece, we see Christ before the Roman governor Pilate, and in the distance the next event: Christ forced to carry his cross to the place of execution.The white shapes suspended mysteriously along the tops of two panels are the ends of scrolls held by two prophets who were depicted on panels above these in the complete altarpiece.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
33407
label
Pilate Washing His Hands of Guilt for Christ's Death
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
33407
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Pilate Washing His Hands of Guilt for Christ's Death
description
These four panels (Walters 37.665, 37.666, 37.672, and 37.673) depicting episodes from Christ's Passion were originally part of a "polyptych" or multi-paneled altarpiece commissioned by the Carthusian monastery in Buxheim, Swabia, and completed by 1500. Other panels are in Berlin and Augsburg. In Walters 37.672, we see Christ's entry into Jerusalem, with the Last Supper tucked into the upper right corner. In "The Arrest of Christ," (Walters 37.666) the emotional intensity of the scene is stressed through crowding and agitated, angular gestures. Strigel was fascinated by detail and shows accurately rendered 15th-century polearms, such as the halberd and pike, in the hands of the peasant mob around Christ. In this piece, we see Christ before the Roman governor Pilate, and in the distance the next event: Christ forced to carry his cross to the place of execution.The white shapes suspended mysteriously along the tops of two panels are the ends of scrolls held by two prophets who were depicted on panels above these in the complete altarpiece.
provenance
Henry Walters, Baltimore, before 1909, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
1495-1500 (Late Medieval)
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
altarpieces
paintings
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
158
height
73.4
depth
7
dimensionsRaw
framed: 62 3/16 x 28 7/8 x 2 3/4 in. (158 x 73.4 x 7 cm)
style
Gothic
Source extras
cul
German
med
oil on wood
creator_ids
5213
collection_ids
REN
exhibition_ids
none
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
fdeabe470cda32a5