Luca Cambiaso
Moneglia, Genoa, 1527-El Escorial, Madrid, 1585
Ecce Homo, early 1570s
Oil on canvas.
This painting represents a late and distinctive moment in Luca Cambiaso�s activity. Until this time, the scene of King Pilate presenting Christ to the people had usually involved an architectural setting and featured a boisterous crowd. Here, the composition is distilled to its essence. Life-sized and confronting the viewer, the figures of Pilate and Christ recall the heroic forms of Cambiaso�s early works, like Madonna and Child, to the left. At the same time, sensitive drawing and thin paint handling help suggest the figure�s complex states � Pilate�s ambivalence, Christ�s resignation � while dappled light and a warm palette confer naturalism to the scene. These developments, exceptional in Cambiaso�s work, were inspired by his experience of Venetian painting, but they can be more broadly associated with the Counter-Reformation and its insistence upon more accessible and affecting religious imagery. They also anticipate basic principals of Baroque style.