Christ Presented to the People (Ecce Homo)

The monumental Ecce Homo depicts the moment when Pilate's wife (seen here in the upper left hand window) 'sent word to him to have nothing to do with that righteous man for I have suffered much over him today in a dream'. The artist tells the whole story in a very matter of fact way. As the two statues of blind Justice and the Amazon, Prudence, look down, Christ's condemnation is sealed in a few inconsequential moments, in a claustrophobic, enclosed courtyard. Within a rather rigid architectural setting the restrained figures are set, as in a relief, in several planes within the composition. This impression of one of Rembrandt's finest prints is of the fifth state of the work. The gallery already held a fine impression of the eighth state, made after the plate was radically altered by the artist. Visitors can now see the prints both before and after the work's transformation.