Christ Crowned with Thorns (Bosch, El Escorial)

Christ Crowned with Thorns
Artist	follower of Hieronymus Bosch
Year	1530s
Medium	Oil on oak panel
Dimensions	165 cm × 195 cm (65 in × 77 in)
Location	Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial, Spain

Christ Crowned with Thorns is an oil on panel painting made in the 1530s by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch. It is now in the Monasterio de San Lorenzo at El Escorial, near Madrid, in Spain.[1]

The work is painted on a rectangular oak panel and measures 157 cm × 194 cm (62 in × 76 in). The main scene is set in a circular tondo with a gold background, surrounded by a grisaille painting of a battle between angels and demons.

It is an elaborated version of another Bosch's composition of the same subject, Christ Crowned with Thorns, held by the National Gallery, London, combining two events from Biblical account of the Passion of Jesus: the Mocking of Jesus and the Crowning with Thorns. As with the London version, this composition is centred on a half-length Jesus with a calm expression, accompanied by several other men, in this case five others. The man to the far left, with a sceptre depicting Moses, is often identified as the High Priest Caiaphas, with the four others around Jesus interpreted as men obeying his orders. The calm expression of Jesus contrasts with the with caricatured faces of the other men.

The painting was in the collection of Philip II of Spain by 1593. It may have been owned by Fernando de Toledo, former Viceroy of Catalonia, who fought in the Spanish Netherlands under his father Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba.

It was formerly attributed to Bosch, but dendrochronological analysis of the panel in 2001 gave a date of the 1530s (or later), several years after Bosch's death in 1516, and it has been reattributed to a follower of Bosch, possibly Marinus van Reymerswaele. The version is London is securely attributed to Bosch.

The Prado holds a painting of the head of the man with a crossbow bolt through his hat.

The scene is similar to the central panel of the Passion Triptych in the Museu de Belles Arts de Valencia, circa 1530-1540, another painting by a follower of Bosch. The Christ Crowned with Thorns with Donor in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp is also similar in composition but different in style.[2] There are other examples by followers of Bosch in the Philadelphia Museum of Art,[3] and the Kunstmuseum Bern,[4] which are probably based on a second painting of the subject by Bosch which is now lost.

Christ Crowned with Thorns, by Bosch, c.1510, held by the National Gallery, London
Christ Crowned with Thorns with Donor, by a follower of Bosch, in Antwerp
Version, by a follower of Bosch, after 1551, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Head of a crossbowman, after 1549, Prado
Crowning with Thorns, Museum of Fine Arts Bern (black and white photograph of colour painting)
Passion Triptych, by a follower of Bosch, c.1530-1540, in the Museu de Belles Arts de Valencia

References

RKD entry (in Dutch)
De doornenkroning van Christus met stichtersportret, Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, RKD
De doornenkroning van Christus, Philadelphia Museum, RKD
De doornenkroning van ChristusDe doornenkroning van Christus met stichtersportret, Kunstmuseum Bern, RKD

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] RKD entry (in Dutch)

[2] De doornenkroning van Christus met stichtersportret, Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, RKD

[3] De doornenkroning van Christus, Philadelphia Museum, RKD

[4] De doornenkroning van ChristusDe doornenkroning van Christus met stichtersportret, Kunstmuseum Bern, RKD

Hieronymus Bosch
Single panels	Adoration of the Child Adoration of the Magi (New York) Adoration of the Magi (Philadelphia) Allegory of Gluttony and Lust Christ Carrying the Cross (Vienna) Christ Carrying the Cross (Ghent) Christ Carrying the Cross (Madrid) Christ Child with a Walking Frame Christ Crowned with Thorns (El Escorial) Christ Crowned with Thorns (London) Concert in the Egg The Conjurer Crucifixion with a Donor Cutting the Stone Death and the Miser Death of the Reprobate Ecce Homo (1470s) Ecce Homo (1490s) Flood Panels Head of a Halberdier Head of a Woman Hell Paradise and Hell The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things Ship of Fools Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child St. Jerome at Prayer St. John the Evangelist on Patmos/Scenes from the Passion of Christ St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness The Temptation of St Anthony The Temptation of St Anthony (Kansas City) Two Male Heads The Wayfarer
Triptychs	The Crucifixion of St Julia Adoration of the Magi (The Epiphany) The Garden of Earthly Delights The Haywain Triptych The Last Judgment Triptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony The Hermit Saints
Triptych fragments	Fall of the Damned into Hell Ascent of the Blessed The Last Judgment (Bruges) (with workshop) The Last Judgment Terrestrial Paradise
Drawings	Bosch drawings The Owls' Nest
Related	Bosch paintings Hieronymus Bosch, Touched by the Devil (2015 documentary film) The Marriage Feast at Cana Jheronimus Bosch—Visions of Genius (2016 exhibition)