‘The Flagellation of Christ' was a popular subject in religious art. It was intended to remind the viewer of the suffering that Christ underwent for the redemption of mankind. All four Gospels mention that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, ordered his soldiers to flog Jesus before his crucifixion. Here Christ is shown as an isolated and vulnerable figure bound to a column. The column is not mentioned in the Gospels but became an established part of the scene from the Renaissance onwards.

In the middle of the period 1500-1600, when this panel was made, new techniques for producing decorated glass were introduced. Glassmakers used paints known as 'enamels' to paint directly onto the glass, similar to painting onto a canvas. The colours were produced by adding metallic oxides to a glass frit mixture and the resulting colour range included the delicate pinks, reds and purples shown here.