The Beauty of the Via Dolorosa

Jesus is Condemned to Death

Station 1: Jesus is Condemned to Death. We all know the story of how Jesus was tried so unfairly -- but before he was presented to Herod and then Pontius Pilate, he was mocked, reviled, brutally beaten and given a faded purple robe, a crown of thorns and a reed as a royal scepter. In this painting by the great artist Caravaggio (1571-1610), whose full name was Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Jesus is about to be scourged, His back torn by the Roman lashes.