The Flagellation 

This woodcut presents Christ enduring the flagellation, a premonition of His ultimate sacrifice, surrounded by figures of torment. Notice the recurring motif of bound hands, a symbol seen across cultures, from ancient Greek depictions of captured warriors to Renaissance images of enslaved figures. Here, Christ's bound hands, and the rope that binds him, speak to a loss of agency, a vulnerability echoed in countless depictions of suffering across time. Think of Laocoön wrestling with serpents, his body contorted in agony. Consider how the image of flagellation, a brutal act, evokes a primal response, stirring subconscious fears of pain and humiliation. The rhythmic striking, suggested by the figures' gestures, becomes a macabre dance, a ritual of suffering. This dance resurfaces again and again, in Goya’s depictions of war or Bacon’s tormented figures, each echoing the deep-seated anxieties of the human condition. It's a symbol constantly reborn, taking on new forms, yet forever tethered to its origins in primal suffering.