Flower Still Life with Ecce Homo, ca. 1650–1681
ArtistGasper Peeter Verbruggen the Elder,
Antwerpen
1635–1681
Antwerpen
Oil on canvas
Dimensions without frame115,7 × 83,4 cm
Dimensions with frame137,5 × 104 × 6 cm
Status
not on displayAround 1600, plants became the main subject in paintings for the first time. This gave rise to a new genre in Flanders: religious motifs framed by symbolically meaningful flowers. Here, the painter – it is assumed that it was the Antwerp Peeter Gaspar Verbruggen the Elder – surrounded the scourged Jesus with thorny plants. Thistles and roses, as well as poisonous plants such as the datura, emphasise the human suffering of Christ. The medicinal plants medlar, blackberry and artichoke already point to the redemption from pain and sin that his death brought to people according to the Christian faith.
AccessionAcquisition 1938
Provenance[…]; o.D. Laurenz Heinrich Hetjens (Düsseldorf 1830–1906 Aachen); 1906 erworben aus dem Vermächtnis Laurenz Heinrich HetjensInventory numberM 108
Contact
sammlung@kunstpalast.de