Ecce Homo

The representation illustrates the passage from John 19.5 referring to the moment when Pilatus, after having tried in vain to persuade the mob of Christ's innocence, presents him to the crowd saying “Ecce homo”. Christ is depicted half-length, erect and with his hands crossed. His head is reclining to the left with his eyes open, while he wears a crown of thorns. The nimbus around his head, with an inscribed cross, is punched and incised. This particular theme, confined to the figure of Christ only, is not found in Byzantine art before the fall of Constantinople. Thus, this icon should be considered one of the earliest of a series of post-byzantine icons of the 17th and 18th centuries dealing with the “Ecce Homo” in various iconographic versions. Most of them, despite their appearance in the Ionian Islands, are works of Cretan painters. The prototype of this specific iconographic theme of the icon of Patmos could probably be traced among the representations of “Christ before the Cross” of the Byzantine era. More specifically, in a 13th century miniature from the codex no. 5 in the Iviron monastery, Christ stands isolated on one side, with almost the same pose, with his hands crossed and the crown of thorns, wearing an identical (even to the decorative motifs) purple mantle. Overall, iconographic and technical details, as well as the technique of the punched and incised nimbus, point to Cretan cycles and a relatively early dating of 1500. The icon has been attributed by some to El Greco, a hypothesis that has yet to be confirmed by research.