PRETI, Mattia
(b. 1613, Taverna Calabria, d. 1699, La Valletta)

Pilate Washing his Hands

1663
Oil on canvas, 206 x 185 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The painting illustrates the episode in the Gospel of Matthew, in which Pontius Pilate, after having tried to save Christ from death, washed his hands and declared "I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person."