Full title | Christ Crowned with Thorns |
---|---|
Artist | Workshop of Dirk Bouts |
Artist dates | 1400? - 1475 |
Series | Diptych: Christ and the Virgin |
Date made | probably about 1470-5 |
Medium and support | Oil on oak |
Dimensions | 36.8 x 27.8 cm |
Acquisition credit | Presented by Queen Victoria at the Prince Consort's wish, 1863 |
Inventory number | NG712 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This small picture once made up a diptych (a folding painting in two parts) with another in our collection, the Mater Dolorosa. It was probably intended for private devotion: Christ’s pain was meant to inspire empathy in the viewer, who was encouraged to meditate upon his suffering as a means of personal salvation. This painting might have been made in Bouts’s workshop towards the end of his life.
This small picture once made up a diptych (a folding painting in two parts) with another in our collection, the Mater Dolorosa. They were probably intended for private devotion.
Graphic images of the suffering of Christ were very popular in this period, as meditation on the pain of the Passion was believed to offer a route to personal salvation. Although this close-up image looks like a portrait, Christ has been removed from normal space and time – the gilded background indicates that he is outside our world.
Blood drips down his forehead where the thorns pierce his flesh, but there are no holes in his hands: the Crucifixion has not yet happened. The crown and red robe refer to an episode before the Crucifixion, described in John’s Gospel: ‘the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands’ (John 19: 2–5). Christ faces forwards but looks to the side, as if he is reflecting on what is to come. The Virgin in the other panel gazes at him in pity and compassion.
The emotional intensity of this pairing was very popular, and many versions of both this and the Mater Dolorosa survive. This painting might have been made in Bouts’s workshop towards the end of his life.
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Christ Crowned with Thorns
Diptych: Christ and the Virgin
These two panels were once a diptych (a painting in two parts) showing Christ crowned with thorns and his mother, the Virgin, grieving (known as the Mater Dolorosa). Both the Virgin and Christ are shown close up, almost like portraits. Both are red-eyed and weeping, drawing them together emotionally. The frames (now lost) and figures both seem to cast shadows on the gold backgrounds.
Numerous versions of these paintings survive, most of rather poor quality. A more or less identical diptych (Louvre, Paris) was apparently painted in the same workshop, from tracings of the same pattern drawings.
These two panels were once a diptych (a painting in two parts) showing Christ crowned with thorns and his mother, the Virgin, grieving. Both the Virgin and Christ are shown close up, almost like portraits. Both are red-eyed and weeping, drawing them together emotionally. The frames (now lost) and figures both seem to cast shadows on the gold backgrounds.
Numerous versions of these paintings survive, most of rather poor quality. A more or less identical diptych in the Louvre, Paris, was apparently painted in the same workshop, from tracings of the same pattern drawings. Both were probably made in Dirk Bouts’s workshop.
The popularity of these kind of images was part of the great flowering of personal religious activity outside formal church worship which took place in the Netherlands in the fifteenth century. Small devotional paintings such as this were used as an aid to private prayer. Christ and the Virgin’s sorrow was intended to inspire empathy in the viewer, who was encouraged to meditate upon Christ’s suffering and his mother’s grief as a route to personal salvation. Images such as these, and Christ Crowned with Thorns were perhaps connected with the interest that the Devotio Moderna (‘Modern Devotion’) movement took in the pain inflicted by the crown of thorns.
The paintings are in good condition, although somewhat affected by discoloured varnishes. Both panels were made from the same tree, and although they have been slightly cut down none of the painted surfaces has been lost.


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