Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Crowning with Thorns
Valentin de Boulogne French
Not on view
The same two models who posed for Cardsharps here torture Christ, whose suffering but noble face becomes the emotional center of the painting. In this powerfully composed drama, in which Christ’s bare knee seems almost to project into our space, one tormenter faces inward—like us, the viewer—while the other looks outward. We are thus implicated through empathetic association with one figure, the directed glance of another, and the physical and psychological proximity of Christ.
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