The Passion: Christ Before Pilate
1480
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1480
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Passion: Christ Before Pilate is a 1480 by Martin Schongauer, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A crowd presses around Jesus while Pilate washes his hands in a silver bowl. Soldiers, priests, and onlookers fill the scene, their faces twisted with anger or curiosity. Schongauer carved this image into metal before inking and pressing it onto paper—an early printmaking trick that let him share the story across Europe. The lines are so fine you can see the folds in Jesus’s robe and the veins in Pilate’s hands. Look up *chiaroscuro* to see how artists used light and shadow to make flat prints feel alive.
