The present sentimental figure of Christ at the Column is the terracotta bozzetto for the signed marble version in a niche above the altar of the chapel of the Palazzo Durazzo-Palvacini, now the Palazzo Reale, Genoa (fig. 1).

Aside from Christ, the sculptures commissioned by Eugenio Durazzo in 1679 during the renovation of the Palazzo Balbi Durazzo remain in situ; they are a set of four mythological figures from Ovid's Metamorphoses in the palazzo. It is possible that the present terracotta is identical to the ‘Un Ecce Homo, ossia Flagellazione alla colonna’ mentioned in Parodi’s estate inventory in 1703.

Born in Genoa to a family of sculptors, Filippo Parodi began his career as a woodcarver and subsequently worked in both wood and marble. He made two trips to Rome where he trained in the workshop of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). Parodi’s attention to the sensuous, tactile qualities of his subject, particularly evident in his marble carvings, is the result of his time in Bernini's workshop. In fact, Parodi was often referred to as “Genoa’s Bernini.” The French sculptor Pierre Puget (1620–1694), active in Genoa during the 1660s, was also an important influence.

Parodi worked with Giacomo Antonio Ponsonelli (1654–1735) as well who was an Italian late-Baroque sculptor and his son-in-law. Other pupils of Parodi were Angelo de' Rossi, Andrea Brustolon, and Bernardo Schiaffino.