The Mocking of Christ or the Man of Sorrows

This scene draws elements from depictions of the Crowning with Thorns, in which a fool presents Christ with a mock sceptre, often a long reed, a cattail cut at the top, or, as here, a full cattail. The Man of Sorrows with a cattail, a symbol of salvation or the Resurrection, can be found in a number of northern European church sculptures as well.

In this work, Gossart typically melded both Northern and Italian sources (engravings by Dürer and Marcantonio Raimondi).