Christ Presented to the People (Ecce Homo)

In 1654, Rembrandt and his mistress Hendrickje Stoffels fell into disgrace when she became pregnant. After church officials subjected her to harsh and unfair judgment, Rembrandt returned to work on the copper printing plate of his drypoint tour de force Ecce Homo, literally “Behold the Man, ” the phrase spoken by Pontius Pilate when presenting Christ to the crowd for judgment. Using a scraper, he set about the onerous task of effacing the crowd scene that had animated the foreground. He also retouched many of the figures remaining in the image, most tellingly that of Christ, whom he transformed from the apparition of the Holy Ghost into sinew and bone, a very physical man. He replaced the ground upon which the crowd had stood with a pit, a bottomless opening leading to hell. Now we stand on one side, Christ on the other, and we viewers become the crowd that must answer Pilate’s entreaty to choose between Christ and Barrabas. Rembrandt’s highly structured composition imparts a sense of inevitability to the decision. The artist’s sorrow for all involved seems to be reflected in his inclusion of a melancholic river god who mourns the event.