“Ecce Homo,” one of the most ambitious works by Italian painter Antonio Ciseri (1821 – 1891), displays the artist's meticulous attention to precisely detailed furnishings, period clothing and architecture. The painting recounts the trial of Jesus at Jerusalem’s Praetorium, helplessly bound, suffering under a crown of thorns and vulnerably stripped to the waist. Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Judea, presents Jesus to a hostile mob, declaring “Ecce Homo!” meaning “Behold the Man!” The angry crowd, insisting they have no king but Caesar, responds by demanding Jesus’ death by crucifixion.

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