The Round Passion: Christ Presented to the People

Because Lucas van Leyden usually carved his copper plates with thin, shallow lines, the plates wore down quickly; impressions this fine are especially rare. He engraved several versions of the scene of Christ presented to the people, focusing on the moment at which Christ was condemned to die on the cross. Here, he placed Christ in a shallow vestibule before an angry mob within a town and landscape setting that could be 16th-century Europe. This is one of nine engravings of the Passion of Christ in an unusual round shape; the prints feature a decorative border that was printed from a separate ring-shaped plate.