Gallery LabelSodoma was trained in Lombardy, but most of his career was spent in Siena, where he was, together with Beccafumi, the major figure. This work dates from the last decade of his life. The use of contrasting figure types and sfumato derives from his study of the works of Leonardo da Vinci and has a powerfully emotive effect. The turbaned figure is Pilate, who presents the resigned but dignified Christ to the viewer as an object of contemplation.

Though cut down, the late-sixteenth-century frame is of fine quality.

Provenance[Giovanni Battista Camuccini, Palazzo Cesi, Rome, by about 1851–53; ms. cat., about 1851, room 3, no. 6, as "Gesù presentato al Popolo," by Gio. Paolo Lomazzo; sold to Northumberland]; Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland, Northumberland House, London, later Alnwick Castle (from 1853); [Agnew, London, until 1969; sold to Lunde]; Asbjorn R. Lunde, New York, later Riverdale, N.Y. (1969–96)