The Passions, a popular subject in Germany in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, focuses on the physical and spiritual suffering of Jesus Christ in the last days of his human life. The church used art, especially woodcut prints, to inform the illiterate about Christ’s last days. Already in the Middle Ages the iconography of all the stories was well developed and could be easily recognized.

Dürer in his Passion series added something to the traditional iconography and increased the number of stories depicted. Between 1507 and 1513, he worked on two separate Passion series in different techniques: woodcut and copperplate. The earliest sheet of the cycle is dated 1507, the latest 1513, while the majority of the plates were engraved in 1512.

The series consists of fifteen engravings and a cover page. Every sheet is distinctly composed, its details are very precise and subtle. In many compositions the influence of Martin Schongauer (1448-1491) is recognizable, although from a technical point of view, Dürer by far surpassed his teacher. The cycle was extraordinary successful and was republished throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

If the woodcuts were destined to the broad public, the engraved Passion was made for the learned contemporaries of the artist who admired them greatly. Dürer himself had a special appreciation for this series, often giving sheets as gifts to friends. He even took them as presents with him on his journey to the Netherlands.

In Christ before Caiaphas, Christ with his hands tied, is presented by two henchmen to Caiaphas, seated on the right looking left, in an architectural space.