The Flagellation of Christ

The Flagellation of Christ is happening in the background of Piero's painting, under a coffered ceiling drawn with textbook single- point perspective. In the foreground, three men stand and talk, apparently ignoring it. Their identities have been argued about since the painting was rediscovered — the fall of Constantinople, the murder of Oddantonio da Montefeltro, the Council of Mantua have all been proposed. It's the most philosophically dense painting of the Renaissance, and its subject remains unsettled. Now at Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino @gnmarche