Ecce Homo!: Unrecorded 18th-century devotional engraving on pink silk.

Johann Michael Kauperz. Der von der Sündern beleidigte Jesus! Graz: “Bei Ioh. Michael Kauperz in Gräz,” s.a. [c. 1730s-1786]. [12.5 x 9.2 cm], [1] f. engraving on pink silk. Trimmed just inside platemark at bottom edge, edges a bit frayed, a crease at the center right, minor toning. 
 
 
Unrecorded 18th-century devotional engraving of “Christ mocked by sinners” (“Der von der Sündern beleidigte Jesus!,” i.e., the Ecce Homo) by the Graz printmaker Johann Michael Kauperz (c. 1710-1786), here in an example printed on pink silk. Christ is depicted, robed after his flagellation and crowning with thorns, displayed to the hostile crowd shortly before his crucifixion. Small-format devotional prints from this period rarely have come down to us in more than a handful of copies, and prints on fabric have an especially low survival rate.
 
Bust-length or half-length versions of the Ecce Homo meant for devotional contemplation appear in Western art from about the year 1400, with the paintings by Andrea Mantegna, Albrecht Dürer, and Titian perhaps being the most recognizable. A few 18th-century images from German-speaking lands (e.g., an oil painting at Stift Klosterneuburg) carry the same text seen on this engraving on silk (“Der von der Sündern beleidigte Jesus”). Indeed, Wibiral reports the existence of a small devotional engraving with this inscription signed by Johann Michael Kauperz’s son, the prolific printmaker Johann Veit Kauperz (1741-1816) (p. 29, no. 43; perhaps a copy of the present engraving or even the same plate with an altered address?).
 
 
This engraving is not located in OCLC or KVK or recoded by Wibiral.
 
*Franz Wibiral, Das Werk der Grazer Stecherfamilie Kauperz.