Follower of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo; 18th century.

Follower of BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN MURILLO (1617-1682); XVIII century.
"Ecce homo.
Oil on canvas.
It has a frame of the eighteenth century.
Measurements: 53 x 40 cm; 59 x 47 cm (frame).
This canvas represents Jesus Christ as Ecce Homo. It follows Murillo's models. The figure is worked from a naturalistic perspective, using a tenebrist illumination. The face, in the foreground, is cut against a background, directly illuminated by a theatrical and directed spotlight. The theme of Ecce Homo belongs to the cycle of the Passion, and precedes the episode of the Crucifixion. Following this iconography, Jesus is presented at the moment when the soldiers mock him, after crowning him with thorns, dressing him in a purple robe (here red, symbolic color of the Passion) and placing a reed in his hand, kneeling and exclaiming "Hail, King of the Jews!". The words "Ecce Homo" are those pronounced by Pilate when presenting Christ before the crowd; their translation is "behold the man", a phrase by which he mocks Jesus and implies that Christ's power was not such in comparison with that of the leaders who were judging him there.
Little is known about Murillo's childhood and youth, except that he was orphaned of his father in 1627 and of his mother in 1628, for which reason he was taken under the tutelage of his brother-in-law. Around 1635 he must have begun his apprenticeship as a painter, very possibly with Juan del Castillo, who was married to a cousin of his. This working and artistic relationship would last about six years, as was customary at the time. After his marriage, in 1645, he began what was to be a brilliant career that progressively made him the most famous and sought-after painter in Seville. The only recorded trip he made is documented in 1658, the year in which Murillo was in Madrid for several months. It can be thought that at the court he kept in touch with the painters who lived there, such as Velázquez, Zurbarán and Cano, and that he had access to the collection of paintings of the Royal Palace, a magnificent subject of study for all those artists who passed through the court.