[3] It was rumoured that King Henry III of France had in vain offered to Paolo d'Anna the sum of 800 ducats for the famous Ecce Homo in 1574.

[4] It was purchased by Sir Henry Wotton in the early seventeenth century to pass into the hands of the Duke of Buckingham in 1621, who refused £7,000 for it, offered by the Earl of Arundel.

As he questions the crowd who have assembled at the foot of the steps—a throng of warriors, in the middle of whom is a young blonde girl in white with her arm round a boy whom she draws towards her, in front a fat pharisee, on the right a few horsemen, a turbaned Oriental, each figure with its strongly marked type—the answer is thundered back to him, "Crucify Him!"

[6][7][8] According to Walter Gronau, the likeness of Pilate, "whose face betrays a ghastly mixture of haughtiness and cynicism", is taken from Titian's friend Pietro Aretino.

Almost in the centre of the composition stands the form of the light-haired girl in a soft white satin dress; legend has identified her as Titian's daughter Lavinia.