Christ with the crown of thorns

Artist/Maker

Material / Technique

Dimensionsh x w: Mått 67,5 x 65,5 cm

Inventory numberNM 7203

AcqusitionTransferred 2014 from Kongl. Museum

Other titlesTitle (sv): Kristus med törnekronan Title (en): Christ with the crown of thorns

DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 69: FORMER INV. NOS.: 188 (M. 1796–97); 261bis (F. 1798); 216 (M. 1804); KM 793. TECHNICAL NOTES: The painting is in very poor condition, with heavy paint losses. Only a few outlines of the figures in the composition are still visible. The support consists of a single piece of thin, plain-weave linen fabric. The ground is red and thin, and covers the whole support. The painting has been lined with glue and mounted with staples on a Martelli strainer. This was probably done in Italy before shipping to Sweden. The paint layer is in very poor condition, blanched and with numerous losses all over the surface. The varnish is broken down and yellowed. According to the KM inventory of 1861, the painting was already badly damaged at that time. PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sander 1872–76, p. 112, no. 216. This painting is pendant to NM 217 (cat. no. 68) and, like that work, was attributed to Giorgione by Martelli and by Corvi and Tofanelli.¹ Just like its pendant, it should be placed within the context of Callisto Piazza’s commission for the Incoronata in Lodi. Unlike NM 217 however, its specific subject from the Passion, Christ Crowned with Thorns, is not found in the Incoronata.² Due to the painting’s abysmal condition, it is of course quite hard to make out the actual composition. In the centre, Christ has been seated on a stool, while four persecutors attend to binding and placing the crown of thorns on his head. To protect themselves from the thorns they apply the crown using sticks. In the background to the left we can just distinguish a group of soldiers, of the same Landsknecht type as found in NM 217 it seems, and some of their arsenal of spears and halberds.³ The scene depicted is probably from the praetorium, the house of the Roman governor: the vaults and pillars receding into the left background must have created a fine sense of perspective in a better preserved state of the painting. Several characteristics of Callisto Piazza’s hand are found in the painting. Despite its poor condition, we can for example make out the use of the saturated moss-green in the clothing of the soldier to the right, who is leaning on his spear watching the proceedings. The two principal tormentors standing closest to Christ are of course very similar to their counterparts in NM 217 and the corresponding painting in the Incoronata, and to the henchman in the Massacre of the Innocents in the Duomo, Lodi, both in their clothing and in the way the artist has rendered their quite rigid poses, especially their limbs.⁴ The rigidity of the figure painting is also evident in the two seated figures: Christ in the centre and, in particular, the awkwardly seated persecutor in the left foreground. The position of Christ is quite similar, for example, to the seated position of the chief priest in the centre of the Massacre of the Innocents.⁵ On the whole, the composition seems to be derived from German prints of the Passion, which were popular in late 15th- and early 16th-century northern Italy.⁶ Callisto’s painting seems to be particularly close to Martin Schongauer’s (c. 1448–1491) print of the subject, where the composition is centralized in a like manner, with a seated Christ surrounded by his tormentors under a vaulted ceiling. Interestingly, given that his style exerted a pronounced influence on Callisto, Titian’s famous painting of the subject, executed in the 1540s and now in the Louvre, also seems compositionally similar to prints such as Schongauer’s.⁷ Like its pendant, the present painting was perhaps used as a modello in a presentation of the Piazza studio’s projected decorations for the Incoronata. DP 1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet de Martelli (à Rome). 2 Sciolla 1989, pp. 262–269, cat. no. 42. 3 See entry no. 68. 4 Sciolla 1989, pp. 262–269, cat. no. 42, pp. 214–220, cat. no. 32. The Massacre of the Innocents is pictured on p. 217. 5 Sciolla 1989, pp. 214–220, cat. no. 32. 6 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Department of Prints and Drawings, Martin Schongauer, Christ Crowned with Thorns, accession no. 28.26.2; Manca 1994, pp. 223–228. 7 Wethey 1969, pp. 82–83, cat. nos. 82–83, pls. 132, 134. [End]

Motif categoryReligion/Mythology

Collection

Geographical origin

MaterialOil paint

TechniquePainting

Object category

Keyword

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