According to art biographer
Gian Pietro Bellori (1672), this work was commissioned by the di Franco (or de Franchis) family for a chapel in the church of
San Domenico Maggiore in Naples. The family were connected with the Confraternity of the
Pio Monte della Misericordia, for whose church Caravaggio had already painted
The Seven Works of Mercy. It was moved to the museum at Capodimonte in 1972. The
Flagellation of Christ had long been a popular subject in religious art—and in contemporary religious practice, where the church encouraged self-flagellation as a means by which the faithful might enter into the suffering of Christ. Caravaggio would have had in mind the famous fresco by
Sebastiano del Piombo in the church of
San Pietro in Montorio in Rome. Caravaggio has reworked del Piombo's composition by drastically reducing the picture space so that the sculptural figures seem presented on a shallow stage. He has, however, retained del Piombo's sense of the flagellation as a kind of sadistic ballet, with the figures arranged rhythmically across the canvas. Caravaggio's painting introduces an acutely observed reality into the scene: Christ is in this drooping pose, not because it might seem graceful, but because the torturer on the right is kicking the back of his knee while the figure on the left holds his hair tightly in his fist. This series of highly dramatic and innovative Neapolitan altarpieces — the
Seven Works of Mercy, this
Flagellation, and a close companion piece,
Christ at the Column, all done within a few months of his arrival in the city — instantly made Caravaggio the most talked-about artist in Naples, and the church of
Sant'Anna dei Lombardi (Saint Anna of the Lombards — Caravaggio was originally from Lombardy) became a centre of the
Caravaggisti, artists painting in the style of Caravaggio. These were not only native Neapolitans like
Carlo Sellitto and
Battistello Caracciolo, but included Flemish artists like
Louis Finson,
Abraham Vinck and
Hendrick de Somer who would later help spread Caravaggism to northern Europe. ==See also==