Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers

Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers by Édouard Manet: Throughout his career Édouard Manet managed to shock and confound the public with his bold technique and unortho…

What to notice

The soldiers crowd close around Christ, whose exposed body catches the strongest light; rough handling and compressed space make humiliation immediate.

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Throughout his career Édouard Manet managed to shock and confound the public with his bold technique and unorthodox approach to subject matter. The most startling feature of this painting is that he painted it at all. Following the advent of the Realist movement, which grounded art in the here and now, avant-garde artists in France did not pursue religious themes. While Manet was primarily a painter of secular subjects, he was also interested in art history, which led him on at least two occasions to depict the bi…