Ecce homo

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Jörg Breu the Elder : Ecce homo (Exhibition of the Lord) , Melker Altar , 1502

With the reference Ecce homo ( classical pronunciation [ˈɛkːɛ ˈhɔmoː] , German pronunciation [ˈɛkt͡sə ˈhοːmo] ), after the presentation of the Gospel of John, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate presented the tortured prisoner Jesus of Nazareth , dressed in purple robes and crowned with a crown of thorns because he sees no reason to condemn it. The Jewish leadership then calls for Jesus to be crucified ( Jn 19 : 4-6  EU ).

The exclamation in the original Greek text of the Gospel of John reads ἰδοὺ ὁ ἄνθρωπος ( idoù ho ánthropos ) and means “Behold the man”. The Latin phrase comes from the Vulgate ( Joh 19,5  VUL ) and from there it entered Christian tradition and art history.

translation

The literal translation from the original Greek text reads: "See, man" (also reproduced in the Elberfeld Bible ). In other German Bible translations the text is presented differently:

Ecce homo as a motif in art

Hieronymus Bosch , around 1475–85
Martin Schongauer , 15th century
Antonello da Messina , around 1473
Titian : Ecce homo , 1543, Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna
Gioacchino Assereto , around 1640
Ecce homo column, 1688 (in  Unterfrauenhaid , Burgenland )

In Christian art there are two pictorial motifs that are referred to as Ecce homo :

  • the actual illustration of the scene from John 19 (also called the exhibition of Christ ), which shows at least Pilate and Jesus as well as mostly the people of Jerusalem mocking him and partly also the city itself;
  • Devotional images depicting Jesus as a standing, single half-figure or full-figure with a purple cloak, loincloth, crown of thorns and torture wounds, especially on the head. Are on such devotional pictures in addition the wounds of the crucifixion (nail wounds on the limbs, lance wound on the side) to see one speaks of the motif of Sorrows (also Erbärmdebild or Miserikordienbild ). If Christ is shown seated (often propping an arm on his thigh as a lamenting gesture), the motif is Christ at rest . However, both representations are also often referred to as Ecce homo .

The first depictions of the ecce homo scene in the visual arts can be found in the 9th and 10th centuries in the Syrian-Byzantine cultural area. Medieval occidental representations that seem to depict the Ecce-homo motif and have often been interpreted in this way, however, mostly illustrate the scene of the crowning of thorns and the mocking of Christ (for example in the Egbert Codex or in the Gospels of Echternach ), which the biblical Ecce-homo Scene precedes.

The motif found widespread use in the 15th and 16th centuries when the passion became the central theme of Western piety. The ecce homo scene was included in the passion play of medieval theater as well as in almost scenic illustrations of the passion story, for example in the passions by Albrecht Dürer or graphics by Martin Schongauer . The scene was also often represented as a sculpture or group of sculptures (especially in France); Altarpieces and other paintings with the motif were also created (for example by Hieronymus Bosch or Hans Holbein the Elder ). Like the Passion Play, pictorial representations of the Ecce Homo scene were often used for anti-Jewish depictions of the people of Jerusalem, which were characterized by excited gestures and distorted grimaces.

The motif of the individual figure of the suffering Jesus, who often seems to be looking directly at the viewer and thus enables personal identification with the Passion, also emerged in the late Middle Ages. At the same time, the similar motifs of the Man of Sorrows and Christ at rest became increasingly important in Western art . The motif is also widely used in later prints (such as Jacques Callot and Rembrandt van Rijn ), Renaissance and Baroque painting (such as Tizian , Caravaggio , Correggio , Peter Paul Rubens ) and baroque sculpture.

Albrecht Dürer already depicted the suffering Christ in the ecce homo scene of his Great Passion in striking proximity to his self-portrait from 1498, thus allowing the motif to be reinterpreted into a metaphor for the artist's suffering. James Ensor uses the ecce homo motif in his bitingly ironic graphic Christ and the Critics of 1891, in which he also portrays himself as Christ, as an image for the injustice of criticism .

On his cavalier journey on May 22, 1719, the young imperial count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf looked at an ecce homo painting by Domenico Feti with the signature Ego pro te haec passus sum in the Düsseldorf Gemäldegalerie ; tu vero, quid fecisti pro me? (“I suffered this for you; but you, what have you done for me?”, Usually translated more simply as “I did that for you; what are you doing for me?”). This experience led to a clarification and deepening of his self-image as a Christian. He became known as the founder of the Moravian Brethren in Upper Lusatia and as the inventor of the Moravian slogans .

Especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, the meaning of the ecce homo motif as a picture of the suffering and degradation of people through violence and war is expanded. Well-known representations of modernism are Lovis Corinth's late work Ecce homo (1925), which shows Jesus with a Pilate dressed as a doctor and a soldier from the perspective of the crowd, and Otto Dix 's Ecce homo with a self-portrait behind barbed wire from 1948.

George Grosz published a 100-part picture cycle under the title Ecce Homo . Even Paul Meissner repeatedly represented the theme of the suffering Jesus. A representation of the subject by Elías García Martínez gained by an unsuccessful restoration attempt by a retired international recognition (see Ecce homo Borja ).

Ecce homo as a quote

Napoleon and Goethe

When he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have started the conversation with the words “Vous êtes un homme” (another reading: “Voilà un homme”). The saying is often interpreted as an ecce homo paraphrase in the sense of "See what a person".

Nietzsche

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche gave one of his later works, in which he justified his life and his philosophical work to himself and his audience, the title Ecce homo . A short poem by Nietzsche also bears the same title. (It is unclear whether Nietzsche refers directly to the Bible passage or to the Napoleon word.)

Pun in a homosexual context

Due to the phonetic association between the Latin homo = "man", "man" and homo as a short form for homosexual (from the Greek ὅμος homos = "equal"), Ecce homo is also used in a homosexual context as a catchphrase and title. Sometimes religion, suffering or the statement “(also) a person” also play a role.

The Highway Gallery in Santa Monica hosted the three-day performance festival Ecce Lesbo / Ecce Homo every July from 1989 to 2004 . A European-wide controversial touring exhibition by the Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin entitled Ecce homo from 1998 shows twelve photographs depicting Jesus together with homosexuals and based on well-known representations of the visual arts. The biblical ecce homo motif itself is not represented among the pictures.

Further artistic use

music

Musical works by the following people have Ecce homo in their name:

literature

The following authors have used Ecce homo in the title of one of their works:

The title of the science fiction novel Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock corresponds to the English translation of Ecce homo .

Movie

The following films have Ecce homo in their name:

Others

The Ecce Homo arch built by Emperor Hadrian is in Jerusalem . It is connected to the Ecce Homo Basilica , built in the 19th century .

"See, there is man" was the motto of the 100th German Catholic Day in 2016 .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Ecce Homo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry ecce homo on Duden Online , accessed on December 20, 2018.
  2. ↑ See Andreas Urs Sommer : Historical and Critical Commentary on Friedrich Nietzsche's Works , Vol. 6/2, Walter de Gruyter: Berlin / Boston 2013, pp. 352 f.
  3. ↑ Examples:
    Film: Ecce Homo (USA, 1989) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
    Organization in Austria: Review of Ecce Homo ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )     Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , qwien.at Organization in France: www.ecce-homo.fr Book with religious subjects from Italy: Massimo Consoli: Ecce homo - L'omosessualità nella Bibbia , Kaos, Milan 1998, ISBN 88-7953-076-3 Photo book of a Publishing house in Spain: Africa Guzman (Ed.): Ecce Homo , Vertigo Publishers, 2002, ISBN 84-95709-00-7 Newspaper article on suffering from Germany: Matthias Oloew: Homosexualität - Ecce homo , Der Tagesspiegel, May 24, 2008 , on the memorial for the homosexuals persecuted under National Socialism. For more examples and extended descriptions, see “ Ecce homo ” in homowiki.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.qwien.at




  4. ↑ Linda Frye Burnham: Getting on the Highways: Taking Responsibility for the Culture in the '90s Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Fall 1990, pp. 274-277.
  5. ↑ exhibition Ecce Homo lsbk.ch, 2000
  6. ↑ Kristin Beckmann: Jesus lives in lacquer and leather Die Welt, June 18, 1999