Passion of the Christ

During the centuries since Jesus lived, people have tried to comprehend the Easter story. Some of the world’s greatest painters have created fine art depicting the passion of Christ as though it happened in their own time and within their own culture.

From the medieval dress of bystanders to landscapes that were clearly not part of actual events, people have adapted the meaning of Easter to their own understanding.

And so it continues today.

NOTE: Where possible, we have tried to “take you” to the actual places which were part of the story of The Passion of the Christ. For depictions of the events, we reference art from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods. (The names of the artists are specified in the URLs for each painting.)

The Romans killed hundreds of thousands of Jews during their domination of Judea. For more information on those events, see The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus.