Year: 1871
Movement: Italian Purism
Location: Gallery of Modern Art, Pitti Palace
This painting of Jesus is in Florence, Italy. Antonio Ciseri was an Italian painter born in Ronco, Switzerland. He was highly influenced by the Purismo movement, which rejected Neoclassicism and focused on artists like Raphael. You can see Raphael’s influence in Ciseri’s figures. But Ciseri’s paintings have an almost cinematic, photo-like realism.
In Ecce Homo (meaning “behold the man”), Pilate speaks to the crowds, finding no fault in Jesus. As one looks at the light, the draping fabric, and the movement and realism of the characters, it looks like a still from a movie. A lot of that effect is achieved through the choice to paint this scene from the back instead of straight on like many artists would choose to set up this shot, giving the viewer the feeling of being a silent spectator.
