On Great and Holy Friday the Orthodox Church commemorates the death of Christ on the Cross. This is the culmination of the observance of His Passion by which our Lord suffered and died for our sins. This commemoration begins on Thursday evening with the Matins of Holy Friday and concludes with a Vespers on Friday afternoon that observes the unnailing of Christ from the Cross and the placement of His body in the tomb.
Ecce Homo by Tiziano Vecellio (Titian)
The subject of this 1543 painting, Christ before Pilate, is unusual in Italian art of this period, and certainly this particular portrayal is unusual in every way. For one thing, it is hugely asymmetrical. The main body of the canvas is taken up by a wedge of agitated figures surging from right to left and up the staircase at the left. The same stairs lead from our space up to Christ and Pilate, but our way is blocked by a soldier and a man with a dog. And only in the uppermost corner, as if in their own frame, stand the two crucial characters in the drama, at the pivotal point at which Jesus is definitively condemned to death. Even more unusual, he seems, with a few exceptions, to be betrayed by a crowd of Titian s own contemporaries.