Flemish school; 17th century

Flemish school; 17th century.
"Christ tied to the column".
Oil on oak panel.
Measurements: 23 x 18 cm.
Christ on the column or Christ tied to the column is an evangelical scene and a very frequent iconographic theme in Christian art, within the cycle of the Passion. The scene takes place in the Praetorium in Jerusalem, the centre of Roman power, directed by Pontius Pilate, where Jesus Christ arrived for the second and last time, after passing through different instances (Annas, Caiaphas and Herod). In this biblical episode, Christ is exhibited before the one who preferred to free Barabbas rather than him. He is stripped of his clothes and tied to a pillar, where he is subjected to mockery and torture, including the scourging and the crowning with thorns, iconographic denominations which are sometimes totally identifiable with the latter and sometimes precisely differentiated.
While in the 16th century the demand for religious art for churches was beginning to wane in the northern provinces of what is now Holland, monumental art in the service of the Catholic Church flourished in Flanders, partly because of the need to restore the damage that the wars had caused to churches and convents. In the field of secular art, Flemish painters worked for the court in Brussels and also for the other courts of Europe, producing paintings with classical, mythological and historical themes that were to decorate brilliantly the Royal Sites of Spain, France and England. In Holland, on the other hand, the artist's work was mainly for the bourgeoisie, who demanded small to medium-sized works and subjects that illustrated the life and nature of the region. While Flemish painters worked on commissions from patrons, Dutch painters painted in order to sell what they produced to the bourgeoisie. The demand for history or allegorical painting for the decoration of palatial residences almost completely disappeared; little monumental painting was produced in Holland in the 17th century, and much of it was done by Flemish artists.