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"Now I suppose that the question
should be, why would the cloth be so
very much larger on the ivory than
in other images?"
That is just the sort of question
I'd love to time-travel in order to
find a response to... There are many
details in medieval art that send me
into fits of wonderment. Here's a
bit of a non-scientific,
undocumented, totally personal
answer to your query based solely on
first impressions and a bit of
steady gazing.
The short answer is: it's pretty
that way.
The image is a study in flowing
parallels and symmetry. Note that
the folds of the oversized blindfold
follow the position of Christ's
hands and the folds of his garment.
Of interest also are the positions
of the tormentors' bodies. The guy
on the left will have to swing
around to land a blow on Christ's
body and he has to turn his head
slightly to see his victim. But the
artist apparently wanted both guys
to be facing in the same direction
with the same arm raised, bodies in
roughly the same position. Only
their feet and heads are situated
differently. As an aside, I'll note
that the guy on the left looks very
much like the traditional image of
Jesus himself. That struck me at
once.
There may well be some
additional, more theologically-based
motives at work here. I'll leave
those to the theologians to ferret
out.
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