Book 5, lines 369-400

[Previously: lines 300-368]

Pilate has washed his hands of Jesus. Now read on.

Haec dum porticibus populo spectante geruntur
vestibulum ante ipsum, famuli ducis aedibus intus             [370]
armati illudunt capto, irridentque. silentem:
quodque illum populi regera optavere per urbes,
purpureis ornant tunicis, ostroque rubenti
atque alte effultum sublimi sede locarunt.
Pro capitis crinali auro, regumque corona                        [375]
sentibus obnubunt flaventia tempora acutis.
Pro sceptro datur insigni fluvialis arundo.
Tum populo laeti portis bipatentibus omni
ostendunt plausu magno, regemque salutant.
Haud aliter ludo pueri cum ex omnibus unum                   [380]
delegere ducem, sociis qui sponte subactis
imperitet, laeto cuncti stant agmine circum
condensi assurguntque omnes, regis que superbi,
iussa obennt ludicra: ingens it ad aethera clamor.
Tali intus famuli indulgent manus eflera ludo.                  [385]
Dehinc iuveni vestis obtentu lumina inumbrant,
divinumque caput palmis, et arundine pulsant.
Hic digitis vellit concretam sanguine barbam,
ille oculos in sidereos spuit improbus ore
immundo, et pulchrum deformat pulvere corpus.               [390]
Nec mora, nec requires: versantque, agitantque ferentem
omnia, nec verbis ullis indigna querentem,
nec dare permittunt iam lumina fessa sopori.
O dolor, heu! species inhonesta, indignaque visu!
Non silvis avibus frondes, non montibus antra                  [395]
quadrupedum generi desunt, ubi condere sese
in noctem, atque suos possint educere foetus.
At rerum auctori , caeli cui regia servit,
omnibus in terris defit locus, omnibus oris,
quo caput acclinet, fessusque in morte quiescat.               [400]

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Meanwhile, at the palace entrance, as people
watched—inside the vestibule the ruler’s guards                 [370]
mocked and laughed at their silent prisoner.
Because the people called him king of the city,
these men dressed him in a red cloak hemmed with
purple, and seated him on a high throne.
Instead of a royal gold diadem, his head                               [375]
was crowned with thorns, pricking through his blond locks.
Instead of sceptre they gave him a river reed.
Then they merrily opened the gates—the crowd
cheered and applauded, greeting him as king.
As when kids are playing, and choose one                            [380]
of their group to be king, and swank over
their fellows, they all crowd round laughing and
rush to obey the commands of their proud ruler:
so it was with these foolish clamorous folk
yelling and playing their indulgent games.                            [385]
Then they blindfolded this young man, and struck
his divine head with their fists, and with sticks.
One man yanked his beard, caked with blood; another
spat from his foul mouth into his celestial eyes.
They smeared his fine body with unclean dirt,                        [390]
and without rest or pause shook and spun him
about, but he said nothing in protest,
even as they kept his weary eyes from sleep.
Oh, how painful, low and unworthy a sight!
Forest birds have their trees, mountain caves                         [395]
exist to shelter four-footed animals
from the night, a place to raise their offspring.
But the maker of the world, whom heaven obeys,
has nowhere in all the world to lie down,
to rest his head or quietly sink to death.                                  [400]

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These last lines are Vida’s version of Matthew’s famous lines:

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” [Matthew 8:20]

This is a slightly odd recontextualisation of this famous phrase, though. In Matthew it comes in the midst a series of miraculous healings, by no means after his arrest; it follows and offer of discipleschip from a scribe (‘a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”) and is itself followed by a second, related statement: ‘Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead”.’ In context the meaning is clear enough: following Christ means dropping your old life, lock stock and funeral, and heading off, penniless, into the world. By relocating this statement here Vida makes it about God's vulnerability to the depredations of the mob, his impossibility of escape and a desire to find a quiet spot in which to lie down and die. That's a very different vibe. Not an improvement, I think.

At the head of this post: ‘Christ Mocked’, a small 13th-century panel painting by the Italian artist Cimabue, in tempera on a wooden panel: the only remaining part of a polyptych depicting the passion of Christ. It was discovered in a house in Northern France:

The painting was discovered hanging above the hotplate in the kitchen of an elderly woman living in Compiègne, northern France. The woman was in her 90s and was selling the house, which had been built in the 1960s, and moving from the area. Ahead of the move in June 2019 the owner called in a local auctioneer to determine if any of her possessions were worth selling, the remainder were to be thrown away. The owner and her family recognised Christ Mocked only as an old religious icon and thought it had little value. The owner could not remember how the work came to be in her possession, but thought it to be of Russian origin.

The auctioneer thought it might be of an Italian primitivist nature and possibly worth €300,000 to €400,000. The owner was advised to send it away for testing and it went to Eric Turquin and his colleagues at the Turquin Gallery in Paris. Testing under infrared light revealed similarities with other works by Cimabue and it was attributed to him. Some other items from the house sold at auction for €6,000 and the remainder were sent to landfill.

The work was put up for auction at the Actéon Hôtel des Ventes, in Senlis, Oise, on 27 October 2019 with an estimate of €4–6 million. Some 800 people attended the auction and there was interest from several foreign museums. The work reached a hammer price of €19.5 million, which reached €24 million once selling fees were included. The winning bid was placed by London-based dealer Fabrizio Moretti, on behalf of two anonymous collectors. This set a new world record for a pre-1500 artwork sold at auction. The price was believed to be so high as it was the first time a work by Cimabue had sold at auction. Both seller and purchaser decided to remain anonymous, though the buyers have been reported to be two Chilean nationals living in the United States. On 23 December 2019 the French government put in place a 30-month ban on export of the work. It was hoped that funds could be raised to purchase it so it can go on display at the Louvre alongside the artist's Maestà.

It's like an allegory or something.

[Next: lines 401-431]