1502
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Christ before Pilate is a 1502 ink by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This engraving shows a tense crowd of men in Roman-style armor and robes. One figure, naked except for a loose cloth, stands in the center, his hands bound. Around him, soldiers hold spears and shields, while a man in a toga labeled "Pilatus" points at him from a raised platform. The scene is packed with drama—some faces are stern, others look down or away. The Latin text at the bottom reads like a dramatic speech: *"Nullam causam mortis invenio"* ("I find no cause for his death"). This suggests the scene is about a trial, not just a random gathering. This is an engraving, a printmaking technique where the artist etches the design into a metal plate.
Giovanni Antonio da Brescia was an Italian engraver of northern Italy, active in the approximate period 1490–1519, during the Italian Renaissance.
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