Cleveland Museum of Art

The Flagellation (folio 182 recto), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier

Date

1602–4

Medium

Gum tempera, ink, color, and gold on paper

Culture

Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim (1569–1627)

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Two Romans flog Jesus, who has been bound to a stake at the center of the circular composition made up of soldiers and the hilly horizon. His subtly articulated expression conveys both pain and compassion, as he endures cuts to his flesh and the bindings around his elbows that secure him so tightly to the post that his feet are elevated off the ground. This is the last illustration in the Cleveland manuscript of the Mirror of Holiness . The Crucifixion was never illustrated, possibly because the patron, Prince Salim, was Muslim. According to the Koran, Jesus did not die on the cross, but was absorbed into heaven by Allah. A halo encircles Jesus’s head, and his hair and beard are highlighted with gold.

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