Christ at the pillar

This picture is painted on panels, and the edges were once lined with gilt. The composition is characteristic of altarpieces on the theme of the scourging of Jesus that were common in Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Christ is tied to a tall pillar, and his naked body is stained with blood. Instruments of torture, a whip and a bundle of scourges, which are also bloodstained, are below, behind the ropes keeping him tied up. There are no torturers, as is usual in pictures of the Stations of the Cross. All attention is focused on Christ’s suffering: his nudity, the mockery and the constant pain. Similar single-figure altarpieces with Christ have survived in the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, and in the Carmelite Church of St Michael the Archangel in Tabariškės, as well as in the Bernardine Church of the Assumption in Rzeszów in Poland.

Text author Dalia Vasiliūnienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album HEAVEN AND BEYOND (2016). Compiler Dalia Vasiliūnienė. Text authors Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė
Expositions: “Heaven and Beyond. Works of religious art from the collection of Rolandas Valiūnas and the law firm Valiunas Ellex“, 31 May–24 September 2016, Church Heritage Museum, Vilnius (curators Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė)

This picture is painted on panels, and the edges were once lined with gilt. The composition is characteristic of altarpieces on the theme of the scourging of Jesus that were common in Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Christ is tied to a tall pillar, and his naked body is stained with blood. Instruments of torture, a whip and a bundle of scourges, which are also bloodstained, are below, behind the ropes keeping him tied up. There are no torturers, as is usual in pictures of the Stations of the Cross. All attention is focused on Christ’s suffering: his nudity, the mockery and the constant pain. Similar single-figure altarpieces with Christ have survived in the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, and in the Carmelite Church of St Michael the Archangel in Tabariškės, as well as in the Bernardine Church of the Assumption in Rzeszów in Poland.

Text author Dalia Vasiliūnienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album HEAVEN AND BEYOND (2016). Compiler Dalia Vasiliūnienė. Text authors Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė
Expositions: “Heaven and Beyond. Works of religious art from the collection of Rolandas Valiūnas and the law firm Valiunas Ellex“, 31 May–24 September 2016, Church Heritage Museum, Vilnius (curators Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė)