Cleveland Museum of Art

The Passion: Christ Taken Captive

Martin Schongauer

Date

c. 1480

Medium

engraving

Culture

Germany

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Martin Schongauer's series of the Passion of Christ was his largest set of engravings, made around 1480, and extensively copied across Europe. It consists of twelve prints detailing the suffering of Christ in the last days of his life. Schongauer's version focuses on crowded scenes, grotesque physiognomies of Christ's tormentors, and great pathos in the compositions. Here, Christ—with his hands tied—is led away with a rope around his neck by one of his captors. A second soldier seizes him by his left arm, and a third one grasps a lock of his hair. In the foreground, Peter, in an attempt to save Christ, cuts the ear of the soldier Malchus with his sword. Judas, instead, flees with his bag of silver at left. Though the Roman soldier on the right holds a ball and chain weapon (or flail), such weapons are not known to have been used by the Roman military.

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