The Flagellation

This work depicts a very intense and moving scene. On the ground, in the center of the composition, the figure of Christ, lying humiliated in a pool of blood, shows His back which is totally flayed due to the blows rained upon Him by an irate crowd. The flagellation of the Son of God at the hands of men is an example of the new modes of devotion which arose after the Council of Trent, employing, as it does, a pity-inspiring symbolism aimed at glorifying a bloody theatricality capable of moving the viewer and filling him with compassion for divine suffering. One of the contrasts in this painting consists in the setting off of the large number of people in movement, violently gesturing with their faces twisted in anger, who, armed with knives, pointed metal spikes, chains and branches, whip their victim mercilessly, against a Jesus who bears His punishment with resignation, barely managing to ask, by means of a spout of words emerging from His mouth, ¿Quae utilitas in sanguina mea? (i.e. What use is there in my blood?), thus inviting us to meditate on the meaning of redemption. It is worth noting that there is a dark-skinned, curly-haired man among the furious group of people who are beating Christ in the center of the canvas, perhaps reflecting the variegated make-up of neo-Hispanic society. The painter signed this work Inventa, perpetrata que a Nicolao Enrriquez (Invented and executed by Nicolás Enríquez.), in allusion to the inventiveness shown by him in the original composition of this piece, which found its inspiration in the book, "The Mystical City of God", written by the Spanish nun, María de Jesús de Agreda. This work entered the MUNAL as part of its founding endowment in 1982.