Ecce homo

By pointing Ecce Homo (classical pronunciation [ ɛk ː ɛ hɔmo ː ], German pronunciation also [ ɛktsə hο ː mo] ) prepared in accordance with the representation of John's Gospel, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, the tortured, clothed in purple robe and above with a crown of thorns winning prisoner Jesus of Nazareth, because he sees no reason for his conviction. The Jewish leaders then requests Jesus' crucifixion.

The cry is in the original Greek text of John's Gospel Ἰδοὺ ὁ ἄνθρωπος ( Idou ho anthropos, (Jn 19.5 EU) ), meaning " Behold the man ". The Latin version of " ecce homo" comes from the Vulgate and received from there in the Christian tradition and the history of art.

• 4.1 Music
• 4.2 Literature
• 4.3 movie

Translation

The literal translation from the original Greek text reads: " Behold the Man " (also reproduced in the King James Bible ). In other German translations of the Bible the text is different:

• " Behold the man. " ( King James Version )
• "Behold the man! " ( NASB)
• "Here he is, the man! " ( New Life )
• " Look at him, this man! " ( Hope for all )
• "There, you see it on you, man! " ( Good News Bible )

Ecce homo as a motif in art

In Christian art, there are two motifs, which are denoted by the Ecce Homo:

• The actual illustration of the scene from John 19 (also called Flaunt Christ ), which at least shows Pilate and Jesus, and mostly the people of Jerusalem mocking him and partly also the city itself, as well as
• Devotional images, in particular represent Jesus as standing, single half-length or full figure with a purple mantle, loincloth, crown of thorns and Folterverwundungen on the head. Are on such devotional pictures in addition to seeing ( Nail wounds on the limbs, spear wounds on the side) the stigmata of the crucifixion, one speaks of the Man of Sorrows motif (also Erbärmdebild or Miserikordienbild ). If Christ is sitting (often called action gesture an arm on the thigh black blank ) illustrated, it is the motif of Christ in the catch. Both representations are, however, also often called the Ecce Homo.

The first representations of the Ecce Homo scene in the visual arts are in the 9th and 10th centuries to refer to the Syrian- Byzantine culture. Medieval Western representations which seem to represent the ecce homo motif and were also often interpreted as, however, often depicting the scene of the crowning with thorns and Mocking of Christ ( as in Egbert - Codex or in the Gospels Echternach ), the biblical Ecce homo- scene precedes.

Widely distributed on the subject, as the Passion became the central theme of Western piety in the 15th and 16th centuries. Both in the passion play of medieval theater and in acting downright scenic illustrations of the Passion of the Ecce Homo scene was included, as in the Passions of Albrecht Dürer or the prints of Martin Schongauer. The scene was also often represented (especially in France) as a sculpture or group of sculptures; also altarpieces and other paintings with the motif originated (about Hieronymus Bosch or Hans Holbein the Elder. ). Like the passion plays have been widely used for anti-Jewish representations of the people of Jerusalem also pictorial representations of Ecce Homo scene, which was characterized by excited gesturing and distorted faces.

The motif of the single figure of the suffering Jesus, who seems often the viewer to look directly, and thus allows a personal identification with the Passion of Christ, also came up in the late Middle Ages. In parallel, the similar motifs of the Man of Sorrows and of Christ in the catch was becoming increasingly important in Western art. Even in the later prints (about Jacques Callot and Rembrandt van Rijn ), the paintings of the Renaissance and Baroque periods (about Titian, Caravaggio, Correggio, Peter Paul Rubens) and the baroque sculpture finds the subject more extensively used.

Already Albrecht Dürer represented the suffering Christ in the ecce homo scene of his great passion in conspicuous proximity to his self-portrait of 1498 is allowed and as a reinterpretation of the subject in a metaphor for the suffering of the artist. As an image for the injustice of the criticism James Ensor used the ecce homo motif in his bitingly ironic graphic Christ and the critic from 1891, in which he also portrayed himself as Christ.

For the young Imperial Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf led to his Grand Tour on 22 May 1719 the Düsseldorf Art Gallery viewing an Ecce homo painting by Domenico Feti, connected to the image - signature "Ego per te haec passus sum, tu vero, fecisti quid pro me? " ("I have this suffered for thee: but thou, what have you done for me? ", Usually translated simple as " I did this for you;? What you do for me " ), to clarify and deepen his life commitment to Christ. He has often taken to encourage reconciliation among Christians. He is best known as the founder of the Moravian Church in Upper Lusatia and the inventor of the " NASB ".

Especially in the 19th and 20th century, the Ecce homo motif is expanded as an image of the suffering and degradation of man by violence and war in its meaning. Known representations of modernity are Lovis Corinth's late work, Ecce Homo (1925 ), which shows Jesus with a dressed as a doctor Pilate and a soldier from the perspective of the observing crowd, and Otto Dix ' Ecce homo with self-portrait behind barbed wire in 1948. George Grosz published a 100 -part cycle of paintings entitled Ecce Homo. Paul Meissner also presented several times the motif of the suffering Jesus constitutes a representation of the design by Elías García Martínez could be up to 2012 considered in Borja.

Ecce homo as a quote

Napoleon and Goethe

In his meeting with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is Napoleon Bonaparte the conversation with the words " Vous êtes un homme " ( according to another reading: " Voilà un homme " ) have begun. The common interpretation of this utterance as Ecce homo Paraphrase in the sense " Behold the man " probably represents an overvaluation represents; Napoleon could thus only about " With you I meet here at last a really interesting man " have expressed.

Nietzsche

In allusion to the biblical saying of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche gave his autobiography the title Ecce Homo. Even a short poem Nietzsche bears the same title.

Pun in homosexual context

Due to the phonetic association between the Latin homo = " man " = "man" and Homo as shorthand for homosexual (from the Greek ὁμος ( homos ) = "equal" ) is also used in homosexual context Ecce Homo as subject and title. Sometimes also play religion, or suffering " (also) a person," a role. The Highway Gallery in Santa Monica held from 1989 to 2004 every year in July the three-day performance festival Ecce Lesbo / Ecce Homo. A Europe-wide controversial traveling exhibition of Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin, entitled Ecce Homo dating back to 1998 shows twelve photographs that depict Jesus with homosexuals and lean against known depictions of the fine arts. The Ecce homo biblical motif itself is not represented among the paintings.

Other artistic use

Music

Musical works by the following persons wear Ecce Homo in their name:

• Howard Goodall, " Ecce homo qui est faba ", theme music for the television series Mr. Bean
• Grant Hart, album " Ecce Homo " of 1996
• The Hidden Cameras album " Ecce homo" from 2003
• Felicitas Kukuck, church opera " Ecce homo"
• Siegfried Reda, " Ecce homo" for four-part choir
• Rantanplan, song " Ecce Homo (1882 ) " on the album " Samba ", published in 2000