Miniature from a Mariegola: The Flagellation

c. 1365–75

Miniature from a Mariegola: The Flagellation, c. 1365–75. Lorenzo Veneziano (Italian), and Workshop. Tempera and gold on parchment; sheet: 29.5 x 21 cm (11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1950.374 This miniature shows a moment of Christ’s Passion. After receiving his death sentence, Jesus was bound to a column, mocked, and tortured. While two fearsome henchmen beat Jesus with rods, he seems to look directly at the viewer and make a connection with them. The leaf comes from a rule book of a Venetian scuole, a mariegola. Scuole were guilds and lay associations mainly for religious purposes but also for trades and crafts. Five of them were associations of flagellants, a radical movement that became particularly popular since the 1350s in the wake of the Black Death. Christ’s physical suffering served as their model for self-chastisement. Although dark in appearance now, the column in the center was originally painted to resemble green marble.