Ecce Homo

Mateo Cerezo’s different versions of Ecce Homo and of Christ the Man of Sorrows about the iconography of the passion and death of Christ are formally related to those of the Penitent Magdalene, despite being typologically dissimilar at first glance. Thus, a parallel chronology based on stylistic criteria could be established between both subject matters.

The pictorial tradition of the Ecce Homo by Cerezo has its origins in Christ of the Reed by Titian and by the Spanish painters Juanes and Morales. The version kept in the Museo del Prado is remarkable for its proud triumphal character. Instead of depicting Christ nude, the painter covers him with a purple cloak. The reed is larger than in the other versions, with a large leaf still attached to the trunk. The crown of thorns also increases in diameter and thickness, as if it were a royal crown. The halo is in turn also larger. A balustrade and a column give the iconography the regal touch of divine majesty.

The technique and execution of this work, dated around 1663, is hurried and very scrubbed, with little pictorial matter and very diluted in order to create uniform surfaces throughout the whole canvas, as in many other cases by Cerezo.

There is an 18th-century copy of this painting in the Museo Diocesano de Sigüenza, whose catalogue records it as a work attributed to P. Laso, dated 1805 and from Molina de Aragón. Its entire architectural and landscape background has been removed, and the figure of Christ is placed against a neutral background.

Buendía, José Rogelio; Gutiérrez Pastor, Ismael, Vida y Obra del Pintor Mateo Cerezo, 1637-1666, Burgos, Diputacion Provincial, 1986, p.72-73 y 142, nº 44