Circumcision

Sheet 6 of the lithographic episode “Scenes aus dem Leben Christi” by James Ensor (1860-1949). A woman in blue and red in the middle of the leaf head-on to the viewer. Her head surrounds a ray wreath and she holds a roaring naked baby. A man to the right of both with a kind of Harlekin-cap and a long robe bends to the baby with a knife. There is a vessel between the two. On the left, a barbaric woman kneels with a green robe and a narrow dagger in her right hand. The left includes the baby’s left foot. Behind and next to her four men with high hats, one holding a bird in his hands. On the right side of the leaf, another barbous woman with crown. She holds a plate in her hands. Behind them, four people on a richly decorated balcony. On the right edge of the leaf, a fratch. Signed and dated in the record at the bottom right with “Ensor 1919.”