Crowning with Thorns, from Passion of Christ
1575/1600
Medium
Engraving in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 16.2 × 11.2 cm (6 7/16 × 4 7/16 in.); Sheet: 17.4 × 12.5 cm (6 7/8 × 4 15/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
93097
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
After being whipped at the column, bound, and mocked from all sides with a thorny crown and other tortures, the seated Christ appears nonetheless majestic and regal. The surrounding colonnade emphasizes his imprisonment as his tormentors hang on it, jeering ever louder. Christ holds reeds instead of a scepter while soldiers tear at his clothes, but his steady gaze reaches far beyond the printed plane.
About the Artist
Jan Sadeler, I · 1550–1600
Jan Sadeler I (1550–1600) was born in Brussels and became the most prominent member of the largest and most successful dynasty of Flemish printmakers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Sadeler family — which included Jan's brothers Aegidius and Raphael — produced an extraordinary volume of engravings that circulated across Catholic Europe, disseminating images of religious subjects, p...