Christ Crowned with Thorns

The crown, as an event

After the scourging the soldiers plait a crown of thorns, press it on, drape a robe, and salute the prisoner as king. Matthew, Mark and John all report it. The episode is separate from the mocking with the blindfold, which belongs to the night hearing before the high priest, and separate again from the Ecce Homo, in which the crowned figure is shown to the crowd. Twelve titles in this catalogue name thorns; they cover all three of those moments and the record does not always distinguish them.

Where it falls

Inside the praetorium, after the flagellation and before Pilate presents Christ to the people. The crown, once placed, stays for the rest of the cycle — through the road, the Crucifixion, and into the Lamentation.

The record

The catalogue gives Titian and 1542, with the work in the Louvre. The dimensions are 180 by 303 centimetres: a wide horizontal at over life size, which is a large format for a subject that painting more often compresses into a close upright group. The style is entered as Mannerism and late Renaissance and the artist as Italian. The measured palette reads as red. The entry records no commission and no earlier location.