The canvas, the origin of which is still unknown, was registered in 1921 in the inventory of Palazzo Bianco as a copy of Lionello Spada da Caravaggio. In 1953 it was identified by Caterina Marcenaro and, the following year, it was published by Roberto Longhi as the autographed version of the Lombard master from which derivative copies were drawn, especially from the Sicilian area. Various hypotheses have been formulated relating to the commission and the ancient provenance of this painting, but there are still no certain elements that allow us to reconstruct the events of the work until its discovery in the Genoese deposits. One of the most accredited hypotheses linked the Ecce Homo of Palazzo Bianco with the work that Caravaggio himself, in an autographed writing dated June 1605, promised to the Roman nobleman Massimo Massimi, a prominent figure in counter-reformed Rome; other studies, on the other hand, have proposed identifying this canvas with the one already in the Genoese collection of Pietro Gentile; with the one mentioned in the will of the Genoese citizen Lanfranco Massa, drawn up in Naples in 1630, or with the one that appears meticulously described in the inventory of the Neapolitan collection of the Spanish Juan de Lezcano (in 1631). Beyond the various hypotheses, therefore, the only incontrovertible fact can be seen in the numerous "repentances", visible in the hands of Pilate, in the shoulders, in the hands and in the loincloth of Christ that prove the speed of execution of the work. However, the painting should have arrived in Genoa early. To reinforce this last possibility, there is no doubt that precise formal references to Caravaggio's composition are found in works by artists active in Genoa already in the early decades of the seventeenth century, such as Strozzi, Borzone, Orazio De Ferrari and Van Dyck, who immediately captured the innovative characters of the lighting choices. As in Caravaggio, in fact, also in this painting - in which echoes of the painter's Lombard training are evident - lights and shadows are charged with symbolic meanings so that in the luminous light of the body of Christ, depicted in the resigned attitude of the Agnus Dei, the black of Pilate's dress contrasts with it, which strengthens, even visually, the negative role of the Roman procurator as judge. The eloquent gesture of the latter's hands, then, inviting the spectators to enter the scene depicted beyond the parapet, gives the episode the characteristics of a figurative "sacred drama".
