The Flagellation

ca. 1330-39

Italian, active by 1330s

In the hours prior to his crucifixion, Jesus was cruelly mocked before the public and savagely persecuted to extremes. This image of unjust cruelty and physical suffering powerfully affected some of the painting's original viewers, who attacked the panel, scratching the legs of Christ's assailants and gouging out their eyes.

Egg tempera and gold on wood

Image: 22 5/8 × 14 1/2 in. (57.5 × 36.8 cm)

Overall: 28 × 19 1/2 × 4 in. (71.1 × 49.5 × 10.2 cm)

Samuel H. Kress Collection

61.147

Provenance: Achillito Chiesa, Milan; [Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955), Rome-Florence; purchased by Samuel H. Kress (1863-195), New York, September 1, 1939, as Jacopo da Bologna (exhibited Mostra della Pittura Bolognese del 300, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, May-July 1950, p. 29 of catalogue by R. Longhi, as Dalmasio (?)); Seattle Art Museum, since 1952, accessioned 1961

Photo: Susan Dirk

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryBologna, Italy, La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Mostra della pittura bolognese del trecento, May-July, 1950. Text by Roberto Longhi. Cat. no. 33, introduction, pp. 15-16.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Italian Painting and Sculptures: Samuel H. Kress Collection, June 24 - Oct. 5, 1952. Text by William Suida and Sherman Lee. Cat. no. 7, pp. 5, 13-14.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Renaissance Art in Focus: Neri di Bicci and Devotional Paintings in Italy, Mar. 25, 2004 - Dec. 31, 2005. Text by Elizabeth Darrow and Nicholas Dorman. No cat. no., pp. 61-63, reproduced figs. 1-5.

Nashville, Tennessee, Frist Art Museum, Medieval Bologna: Art for a University City, November 5, 2021 - January 30, 2022

Published ReferencesLonghi, Roberto. “La Mostra del trecento bolognese.” Paragone 1, no. 5 (May 1950): p. 11, pl. 9.

Suida, William and Richard Fuller. European Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1954; p. 22, reproduced p. 23 (as "Bolognese painter, probably 'Dalmasio'").

Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings From the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XIII-XV Century. London: Phaidon Press for the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1966; no. K1206, pp. 71-72, reproduced fig. 196.

La chronique des arts et de la curiosite: Supplement a la Gazette des beaux-arts (February 1973): no. 1249, p. 277.

Ishikawa, Chiyo. The Samuel H. Kress Collection at the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1997; fig. 18, pp. 26, 34-36.

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