Analysis Of Christ Before Pilate

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Guillaume de Croÿ commissioned the painting “Christ before Pilate, with Christ Led to Annas, the Mocking of Christ, the Denial by Peter, and Christ led to Caiaphas”, by The Master of the Beigham Altarpiece, in 1520. The painting stands almost 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide and was originally an altarpiece . Unlike the majority of the altarpieces made during the Renaissance the painting does not contain a significant religious message; instead it holds a political message. The commissioner of the painting instead uses the painting as an outreach to both his people and his King. The painting acts as an extended metaphor connecting Guillame de Croÿ to Pontius Pilate and the respective impuissant positions they found themselves in. The subject matter of the painting contains various stories from the latter parts of the life of Jesus Christ. While these events form …show more content…

Depicted are the events that lead up to his condemnation, chief among them his interactions with the Governor of Judea Pontius Pilate. Pilate was forced to sentence Christ to death by an angry riot of people who were persuaded by the high priests . On the other end of the spectrum Guillame de Croÿ was Governor of the Hapsburg Netherlands. During his reign as Governor, the cities of Flanders revolted against their Habsburg overlord, Archduke Maximilian of Austria . The Hapsburg overlord oversaw all of the land and was the higher-up of Guillame de Cröy. Flanders was an area the Guillame de Croÿ was directly in charge of as Governor; thus the revolts occurred under his watch. The placement of his coat of arms above the head Pilate allows the reader to draw the connection between the two people. The coat of arms is at the highest point of the throne; it in other words is the pinnacle of the painting. Its position makes it seem like the throne Pilate sits in is actually that of Guillame de Croÿ symbolizing how Pilate and Guillame de Croÿ were in the same

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