This folding altarpiece is a fine example of the type of small-scale devotional triptych which became increasingly popular in Antwerp during the first half of the sixteenth century. The imagery of the work, however, is more unusual. While scenes of the Ecce Homo were not infrequently depicted in the Netherlands from the early sixteenth century onwards, arranging this subject across the three interior panels of a triptych was more uncommon. Christ is presented in the central panel, His hands bound before Him, the Crown of Thorns on His head and a rush (given to Him as a mock sceptre) in His hand. The centrality of the figure of Christ is significant and serves a double function within the work. First, by positioning Christ in this way, the viewer is necessarily implicated more directly in the narrative of the scene, as if they themselves are a member of the crowd to which He is being presented. Christ’s sombre yet dignified expression, with His eyes lowered in humility, is deliberately designed to elicit the viewer’s compassion and pity as they witness His torture and humiliation. Additionally, His position in front of the low marble wall can be understood not simply to refer to His presentation to the crowds, but also as a deliberate echo the altar, conferring a sacramental quality to Christ’s body and consciously evoking the Eucharist, thus emphasising His sacrifice.

The wings of the triptych divide the narrative into two distinct parts. At the left, citizens of Jerusalem of all ages congregate gleefully to see Christ presented. In the right wing, a development in the narrative is suggested, as soldiers gather and move forward into the central panel of the triptych, carrying with them the cross on which Christ is to be executed. While presenting, then, the single narrative moment of the Ecce Homo, the composition of the triptych appears designed to deliberately lead the viewer to contemplate and anticipate the sequence of events which are yet to unfold. To aid this mode of viewing, the painter has carefully arranged across the painting numerous instruments of the Passion, or objects intended to evoke them, providing further pause for contemplation. In the central panel, for example, Christ, of course, wears the Crown of Thorns, but one of the flails used to beat Him is also made prominent. In the right wing, the painter has incorporated the cross (Christ’s, in the centre, is shown to be larger and of a darker, smoother wood than those destined for the two thieves) and a spear - evoking the lance that pierced Christ’s side - amidst the throng of soldiers. At the right, the large marble column, which occupies such a prominent position in the scene, seems clearly intended to evoke the column to which Christ was tied during His flagellation.

The composition of the triptych follows a design repeated in at least two triptychs from the workshop of the anonymous Antwerp painter, known as the Master of the Lille Adoration (Brussels, Musée de l'Assistance Publique; and Private Collection, Christie’s, London, 10 December 2003, lot 19), all of differing dimensions. Similarly indebted to the work of leading painters like Pieter Coecke van Aelst in the way in which figures are modelled and characterised, these triptychs likewise show the humiliated Christ presented by Pilate before He is taken to be crucified. Subtle changes, however, differentiate the present triptych from these contemporary examples. In both of the triptychs attributed to the Master of the Lille Adoration, the spaces in which each of the panels is set is expanded, with a distant view of Golgotha included in the right-hand wing and more of the architecture of the buildings visible in the central and left panels. In the present example, however, these spaces are compressed, focusing attention on the figures. Similarly, differences can also be observed in the position and features of certain figures. The two figures at the right of the central panel, who present Christ and turn towards the right wing, are both more distinctly characterised in the present triptych, given more exaggerated physiognomies as a means of accentuating their cruelty and moral corruption. Similarly, the figures in the left wing appear also to have been subtly altered, most strikingly in the figure with the yellow turban whose face is turned more frontally toward the viewer. The inscription, carried on the hat of the man closest to the picture plane, has also been changed from the bold antique Roman script of the Master of the Lille Adoration triptych, to the more obscure text, apparently written in pseudo-Greek, which is displayed on the hat of the same figure in the present work. A similar inscription, painted to look as it scrawled on a piece of paper and tacked to the wall with red wax, can be seen above the two figures debating behind Christ. Beneath this are gathered a selection of rolled parchment, scissors and a string of beads, a detail also absent in the Master of the Lille Adoration triptychs.