Flagellation of Christ
The most famous treatment of the theme at the time was Sebastiano del Piombo's High Renaissance "Flagellation of Christ" in the church of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome. Piombo's "Flagellation", much imitated by later artists, shows multiple idealised figures twisting through complex layers of space. Caravaggio has flattened the space, reduced the figures to a minimum, and used light to direct attention to the crucial parts of his composition - Christ's face and torso, the faces of the two torturers, and the hand holding the out-of-frame whip.