The Flagellation (folio 182 recto), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–4): Art, History and Details

The Flagellation (folio 182 recto), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–4) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Two Romans flog Jesus, who has been bound to a stake at the center of the circular composition made up of soldiers and the hilly horizon. His subtly articulated expression conveys both pain and compassion, as he endures cuts to his flesh and the bindings around his elbows that secure him so tightly to the post that his feet are elevated off the ground. This is the last illustration in the Cleveland manuscript of the Mirror of Holiness. The Crucifixion was never illustrated, possibly because the patron, Prince Salim, was Muslim. According to the Koran, Jesus did not die on the cross, but was absorbed into heaven by Allah.

Object facts

• Title: The Flagellation (folio 182 recto), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier
• Date: 1602–4
• Culture: Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim (1569–1627)
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, color, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 26.2 x 15.3 cm (10 5/16 x 6 in.); Image: 22.3 x 13.3 cm (8 3/4 x 5 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2005.145.182.a

A detail from the museum

A halo encircles Jesus’s head, and his hair and beard are highlighted with gold.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• O’Malley, John W., Gauvin A. Bailey, and Giovanni Sale. The Jesuits and the Arts, 1540-1773. 1st English ed. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2005.
• Beach, Milo Cleveland, Eberhard Fischer, B. N. Goswamy, and Jorrit Britschgi. Masters of Indian Painting. Vol. 1. 1100-1650. Zurich, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 2011.
• Carvalho, Pedro de Moura, and W. M. Thackston. Mirʼāt al-quds (Mirror of holiness): a life of Christ for Emperor Akbar: a commentary on Father Jerome Xavier's text and the miniatures of Cleveland Museum of Art, Acc. no. 2005.145. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

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.