Véronèse (Paolo Caliari)
Christ Crowned with Thorns
Véronèse (Paolo Caliari)
Verona 1528 – Venice 1588
Christ Crowned with Thorns
About 1584-1585
Oil on canvas
75.5 x 57.3 cm
Purchase, the Museum Campaigns 1988-1993 and 1998-2002 Funds, gift in memory of Dr Alicja Lipecka Czernick and her husband, Dr Stanislas Czernick, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' Volunteer Association Fund, and Horsley and Annie Townsend Bequest, inv. 2010.23
Western Art
Eyes downcast and puffy from tears, Jesus Christ appears here in the devastating aftermath of his mocking by the Roman guards. “Hail, King of the Jews!,” they jeered, wrapping him in a cloak of princely purple, giving him a reed to carry as a sceptre and “crowning” him with thorns. Although the artist presents the viewer with a moment of profound humanity in this depiction of a broken man in pain and awaiting death, he also reminds us of Jesus’ divinity with the halo – a brilliant sunburst – and the warm even glow of his skin, as though he were illuminated from within.
