I’m not sure how you readers are fairing on hump day, but I sure hope you’re doing better than Jesus here in today’s painting by Antonello da Messina!  Check him out…

Antonello da Messina, Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), 1475/76, oil on panel.  Collegio Alberoni, Piacenza

My first reaction to seeing the painting was to smile and I’m not entirely sure why (except that the face reminds me of a certain someone I know who ran all the way home from Kindergarten and then made the same sad face… #YouKnowWhoYouAre).  The face above is only a detail of a slightly larger painting showing a 3/4 length Jesus bound to the column.  Below, as if tacked to a ledge, is a trompe l’oeilpiece of paper that reads, Antonellus messaneus me pinxit (Antonello da Messina painted me).  In person, the painting is incredibly moving given Antonello’s meticulous attention to texture and surface detail.  Note the tears, the streams of blood that begin to twist across the forehead as if strands of hair, the wispy hairs around his lips, the curls of his beard, the locks of his hair…

So cheer up mid-week readers!

And for those who are thinking, “Gosh, I know I’ve heard that name ‘Antonello da Messina’ before…” you probably have in reference to the Virgin Annunciate below. 

Antonello da Messina, Virgin Annunciate, 1476, oil on panel.  Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo