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The Flagellation of Christ
(18th and 19th Centuries )
Viewers today are struck by the overtly sexual nature of the work, which is, in part, the result of its intimate scale and monochromatic treatment. The emphatic handling of the contours, the precise modeling that articulates the male anatomy of the executioners, the strict profile and rigid pose of the man just off center contrasted with the limp body of Christ and the arrangement of heavily draped voyeurs hint at something vaguely homoerotic. Many critics of the period noted with some alarm the youth and feminine abandon of the Christ figure. And it is worth mentioning that late 19th-century slang for a young male prostitute was "petit Jesus." The connection between sensuality, sadism, and religious fervor apparent in this drawing is shared with more exotic works, such as Bida's "Ceremony of Dosseh" (WAM 37.901).
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Purchased by William T. Walters (through George A. Lucas as agent), Baltimore, June 11, 1883 [1]; inhertied by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
[1] The Diary of George A. Lucas, p. 566.
Exhibitions
| 2005-2006 | The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma. |
| 1992 | French Masterworks on Paper. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1983 | A Connoisseur's Portfolio: Nineteenth-century Drawings and Watercolors in the Walters Art Gallery. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1980 | Christian Imagery in French Nineteenth Century Art, 1789-1906. The Shepherd Gallery, New York. |
| 1968 | The Academic Tradition. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington. |
| 1966 | The Legacy of David and Ingres to Nineteenth-Century Art. Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley. |
| 1963 | Muse or Ego: Salon and Independent Artists of the 1880's. Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont. |
| 1962 | A Generation of Draughtsmen. The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. |
| 1965-1966 | Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century European Drawings. American Federation of Arts, New York. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| Treatment | stabilized | |
| Examination | examined for condition | |
| 3/10/1970 | Loan Consideration | examined for loan |
| 12/5/1991 | Treatment | mounted; re-housed |
| 1/1/2002 | Treatment | examined for exhibition; other |
| 12/15/2004 | Treatment | repaired; cleaned; mounted |
Geographies
France (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Sheet: H: 17 × W: 11 3/4 in. (43.2 × 29.8 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by William T. Walters, 1883
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.1348