These  five  persons  are  brought  together  in  a  somewhat  small
compass.  The  figure  of  Christ  is  rather  more  than  half  length,  those
of  Pilate  and  the  Virgin  rather  less.  Only  the  head  and  hand  of  the
Magdalen  are  visible,  and  all  that  is  seen  of  the  soldier  is  his  face.
Yet  the  picture  is  by  no  means  wanting  in  grandeur.  The  fainting
Madonna  is  less  dramatic  than  the  Virgin  of  the  Descent  from  the
Cross,  but  on  the  other  hand,  she  is  more  beautiful.  Her  features
are  less  disfigured  by  grief,  and  if  we  connect  the  two  figures,  taking
them  as  illustrating  successive  phases  of  the  Passion,  we  shall  see  in
one  the  mother,  overcome  with  grief,  but  sustained  to  some  extent  by
hope  and  physical  energy ;  in  the  other,  a  woman  stricken  and  helpless,
with  no  comfort  left  her  on  earth.  The  artist  has  expressed  this  ex-
tremity of  human  wretchedness  with  the  happiest  and  most  unflinching

1  There  is  one  in  the  Communal  Palace  at  Rimini,  another  in  the  Estense  Gallery  at
Modena,  and  a  third  in  the  Parma  Gallery.
ECCE    HOMO.
In  the  National  Gallery,   London.
:ECCE    HOMO'


229


We  give  the  legend  in  its  accepted  form.
