A particularly common subject in Northern European art of the Renaissance period, the Crowning with Thorns depicts the episode from the Gospels in which Christ is mocked, spit upon, and beaten after being condemned by Pontius Pilate. Soldiers dress him in a mantle of purple, the traditional color of royalty, and place a crown of thorns on his head. In this drawing, two soldiers are occupied with the barbaric act while another soldier hands Christ a makeshift scepter and kneels in mock homage, saluting him "Hail, King of the Jews." The putto-like figure blowing a horn at the left of the composition adds sarcastic emphasis to this humiliating treatment. Meanwhile, Christ's posture is full of pain and sadness as he quietly accepts his fate. The tondo drawing was probably intended as a design for a stained-glass window. The compositional details, figure types, intensity of expression, and drawing style are very close to the work of Lucas van Leyden, one of the most important north Netherlandish artists of the sixteenth century. Lucas assimilated a number of the tendencies of the first generation of Northern Mannerists, generating a distinctive style and manner of expression that had a profound influence on his contemporaries.

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