Spanish school; end of the XVIII century.

Spanish school; late eighteenth century.
"Christ before Pilate".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has a slight lack in the lower margin, slight Repainting and new varnish.
It has corleado frame of the eighteenth century with damage caused by xylophagous.
Measurements: 24 x 18 cm; 33,5 x 30 cm (frame).
Painting where the episode of the passion of Christ is represented in which, after Jesus is taken to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate to be judged, he decides to deliver him to the people. The painter has not focused on the moment in which the condemned man is pointed out, pronouncing the words "Ecce homo" ("behold the man"). A spisode that has been more common in the history of art. In this case the painter chooses the following moment, when Pilate literally and symbolically washes his hands while Jesus is already seized by the soldiers, on his way to Calvary. The composition is asymmetrical and dynamic, working the groups not as a mass, but each character in his individuality. The people do not appear as aggressors, another aspect that distances this painting from conventional iconographies where the mass mocks a humiliated Jesus. Here he still does not wear the crown of thorns, a heavenly halo shines on him, and he is dressed in a white tunic and not purple as usual.
The scene is based on the first scene of the Way of the Cross. The Via Crucis or Way of the Cross refers to the different stages and moments lived by Jesus Christ from the moment he was apprehended until his crucifixion and burial. Theologically, it is a path of prayer, which seeks to lead the faithful into the meditation of Jesus on his way to Calvary. It is represented by a series of images of the Passion or stations. Generally fourteen in total.