Ecce Homo

January 2013.

Last on our list of "places to go" on our trip was Los Angeles' Getty Center - an art museum on top of a hill in LA.  For my photographic enjoyment, this was a two-task trip for me - one to take pictures of art when possible, with my 100mm macro lens, so as to focus in on particular details in paintings I liked, and also to take pictures at the outdoor grounds of the Getty Center, where the view of LA is great, as well as being a great vantage point to get sunset lighting.

Later in the year, when Grand Theft Auto 5 came out, I would be amused at all the similarities between particular areas in "Los Santos" vs Los Angeles.  The Getty Center is basically faithfully recreated in GTAV, so it was interesting to engage in the typical GTA style rampage in a place I had been to and taken photos at before.

From the Getty Center website:

Unknown
Italian, Faenza or Florence, about 1500
Tin-glazed earthenware

When he presented Jesus to the Jews demanding his Crucifixion, Pontius Pilate cried Ecce homo (Behold the man). The words Ecce Homo have come to signify a type of devotional image that depicts Jesus after the scourging, crowned with a wreath of thorns, and with his face typically gaunt and drawn as he goes to his death. In this bust figure of tin-glazed earthenware, Jesus looks down with a noble expression from beneath heavy lids. His faced is framed by a mass of corkscrew curls. The presentation of Jesus in bust format viewed at eye level recalls the intense, close focus captured in devotional paintings, common in the 1400s, that were made for both churches and private chapels. The crown has holes to hold real thorns, heightening the realism of the depiction.

A sculptor from Tuscany and a ceramic artist who did the glazing and firing probably collaborated on this piece. The shiny glazes and palette of vivid yellow, green, and blue are typical of ceramics from Faenza.