Pilate Washing His Hands, from Passio domini nostri Jesu Christi c. 1503

Urs Graf rendered this woodcut, *Pilate Washing His Hands*, part of *Passio domini nostri Jesu Christi*. Pilate, a symbol of conflicted authority, washes his hands, attempting to cleanse himself of moral responsibility. The act of washing hands, present here, transcends its immediate context, appearing across cultures as a symbolic gesture of purification or disavowal. We see echoes of this in ancient rituals, where water was used to cleanse both body and spirit, signifying a desire to shed impurity. Consider Lady Macbeth’s desperate attempts to wash away the metaphorical blood, a haunting echo of Pilate's act. Here, the gesture speaks to a deeper human impulse: the futile attempt to erase the indelible stain of guilt. The persistence of this motif through time reveals our collective memory of the psychological weight of decisions and their consequences.