''The Flagellation of Christ'' is a panel painting by 13th-century Italian artist Cimabue, in egg tempera and

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on a poplar panel, dated to c.1280. It has been held by the

Frick Collection The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the 945 Madison Avenue#2021–present: Frick Madison, Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and Europe ...

in New York since 1950, and is the only painting by Cimabue in the US. The Frick Collection acquired the painting from the Knoedler gallery in Paris in 1950. Previously, it had been owned by the antiques dealer M Rolla at the end of the 19th century, inherited by G Rolla, and then sold to the art dealer Eduardo Moratilla. The painting depicts the flagellation of Christ, an episode in the Passion. In the painting, Christ, naked but for a loincloth, is bound to a marble column that rises up the centre of the scene, dividing it into two halves. He is being flogged by two figures, one to either side, in clothing of jarringly cheerful colours. The anguished Christ regards the viewer calmly. Tall city buildings in the background are depicted with Byzantine reverse perspective frame the scene. The figure of Christ is heavily influenced by that in Cimabue's '' Santa Croce Crucifix'', whilst the torturers in bright clothing recall the Sienese School and the stylised background buildings the Roman school, the latter influence already taken on by Cimabue's workshop in the ''Lives of the Apostles'' in the Upper Basilica at

Assisi Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born aroun ...

. The panel measures . It is one of three panels known from the '' Diptych of Devotion'', a polyptych depicting the passion of Christ, which probably had two wings each with four panels, eight in all. The physical condition of the paint at the edges of ''Flagellation of Christ'' panel indicate that it was at the lower-right corner of a larger composite work. Two other scenes by Cimabue, painted on wood panels of similar size, have been identified as parts of the same polyptych: '' Virgin and Child with Two Angels'' in the collections of the National Gallery in London (discovered in Suffolk in 2000) and '' Christ Mocked'', discovered in France in 2019. Attribution of the work has been problematic since it came to the attention of art historians in the 1950s. It was initially attributed it to another

Sienese Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

artist Duccio, but others suggested Cimabue or his workshop. The uncertainty was resolved after the discovery and attribution of the similarly-size '' Virgin and Child with Two Angels'', definitively attributed to Cimabue, which led to a reattribution of the ''Flagellation of Christ'' from Duccio to Cimabue. The two panels were exhibited together in Pisa and London in 2005, and at the Frick Collection in 2006. A third panel, '' Christ Mocked'', was found in France in 2019, and auctioned for €24 million. File:Cimabue Christ Mocked.jpg, Cimabue, '' Christ Mocked'' File:Cimabue, The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Two Angels.jpg, Cimabue, '' Virgin and Child with Two Angels'', National Gallery File:Cimabue Diptych Overview Simple FR.svg, A proposed reconstruction of the '' Diptych of Devotion''

References

External Links

Cimabue and Early Italian Devotional Painting
Frick Collection, exhibition in 2006.
Two Cimabue Panels Reunited in US for the First Time in Cimabue and Early Italian Devotional Painting, October 3 through December 31, 2006"
press release, Frick Collection. {{DEFAULTSORT:Flagellation of Christ (Cimabue), The 1280s paintings Paintings in the Frick Collection Cimabue Paintings by Cimabue