The Flagellation (1500s): Art, History and Details

The Flagellation (1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Moderno (Italian, 1467–1528).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Although not exact copies, the compositions of both this bronze plaque and drawing derive from the Laocoön group, an ancient marble sculpture unearthed in 1506 in Rome. The nearly life-size statue of the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons battling giant sea snakes quickly became a source of inspiration for artists. They especially appreciated the emotional anguish and physical strain portrayed by the struggling male nudes. In The Flagellation, the sculptor Moderno adopted Laocoön’s pose and muscularity for the suffering figure of Christ, thereby presenting him as an athletic and virtuous hero. Pordenone’s drawing of a man entwined by two serpents seems to be his own expressive version of Laocoön.

Object facts

• Title: The Flagellation
• Date: 1500s
• Creator attribution: Moderno (Italian, 1467–1528)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 14 x 10 cm (5 1/2 x 3 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1967.150

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Chester D. Tripp

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.