Reverse Copy of Le Couronnement d'Épines (The Crowning with Thornes), from La Petite Passion (The Little Passion)
17th century
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 1/2 x 5 3/16 in. (14 x 13.2 cm) Plate: 2 15/16 x 2 3/16 in. (7.5 x 5.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Museum Accession, Anonymous Gift, 1972
Accession Number
1972.558.7
Art Historical Context
This delicate etching, titled *Reverse Copy of Le Cour d'Épines (The Crowning with Thorns from *La Petite Passion (The Little Passion)*, dates to the 17th and is attributed to the anonymous hand of a follower or Jacques Callot himself. Part of a renowned series depicting scenes from Christ's Passion, it captures the biblical moment of mockery and suffering, rendered in reverse orientation—a technique often used in printmaking to create mirrored reproductions from an original plate. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, this tiny work (plate: 2 15/16 x 2 3/1...
About the Artist
Anonymous|Jacques Callot
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...