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Lot Essay
This painting illustrates one of the most poignant moments in the Passion narrative, the Mocking of Christ. Stylistically and compositionally, it relates to the work of the great Netherlandish painter, Hieronymus Bosch, in particular his Christ Mocked (Crowning with Thorns) in the National Gallery, London, of c. 1490-1500 (fig. 1). In its earliest history, the London panel was owned by the Portuguese humanist Damião de Góis, the secretary of the Portuguese merchants’ company in Antwerp from 1523-1545, and may have originally served as the central panel of a triptych (see M. Ilsink, J. Koldeweij, et al., Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman. Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 2016, p. 265). The composition was clearly deemed highly successful and was much admired, as there exist numerous variants, nearly all of which were painted by artists working in Antwerp in the second quarter of the 16th century.
The subject is taken from the Gospels, which recount the events surrounding Christ’s trial. Having taken him to the courtyard of Pontius Pilate’s house, soldiers dressed Jesus in a luxurious robe, placing a crown of thorns upon his head and a reed staff in his bound hands. Thus, they taunted Christ, crying 'Hail, King of the Jews!'. While the artist of the present panel maintains the key compositional structure of Bosch’s London painting – namely the close-up grouping of large, grotesque men surrounding the central figure of Christ, who directs his sympathetic gaze at the viewer – he expands the scene, situating it on a classical architectural loggia overlooking a landscape. At left in the distance, a small vignette of the Christ’s Flagellation is seen, while Christ Carrying the Cross on the way to Calvary appears in miniature just above Christ’s multicolored crown of thorns. Three winged putti somewhat incongruously appear above the entire group, hoisting a garland above the tragic scene unfolding below them. The panel’s arched top is filled with a gilt image of a woman standing before an enthroned king (Salome and Herod?) flanked by two martyrdom scenes in grisaille.
The painting is compositionally closer to the celebrated Mocking of Christ in the Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, datable to c. 1530-40, which was already in the Spanish royal collection by 1593. It may similarly be compared to the central panel from the Passion Triptych in the Museu de Belles Arts de València that was painted for Mancía de Mendoza y Fonseca, Marquise of Zenete, the third wife of Count Henry III of Nassau. All three of these paintings, as well as several others associated with this group, such as the panels in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, were possibly based on a lost design by Bosch himself. Based on iconography of the two Spanish paintings, the figure at left with the staff here could be interpreted as the high priest Caiaphas, while the man with the green hood next to him could be Pontius Pilate. The largest figure in red with the arrow stuck through his hat, as well as the mocking figure at lower right, both find close parallels in Bosch’s earlier panel in the National Gallery. The present work is also distinguished from the other known examples from this group by the inscription in gold along the lower edge, which reads: 'Ave Rex Judaeorum', executed in an elegant script.
The subject is taken from the Gospels, which recount the events surrounding Christ’s trial. Having taken him to the courtyard of Pontius Pilate’s house, soldiers dressed Jesus in a luxurious robe, placing a crown of thorns upon his head and a reed staff in his bound hands. Thus, they taunted Christ, crying 'Hail, King of the Jews!'. While the artist of the present panel maintains the key compositional structure of Bosch’s London painting – namely the close-up grouping of large, grotesque men surrounding the central figure of Christ, who directs his sympathetic gaze at the viewer – he expands the scene, situating it on a classical architectural loggia overlooking a landscape. At left in the distance, a small vignette of the Christ’s Flagellation is seen, while Christ Carrying the Cross on the way to Calvary appears in miniature just above Christ’s multicolored crown of thorns. Three winged putti somewhat incongruously appear above the entire group, hoisting a garland above the tragic scene unfolding below them. The panel’s arched top is filled with a gilt image of a woman standing before an enthroned king (Salome and Herod?) flanked by two martyrdom scenes in grisaille.
The painting is compositionally closer to the celebrated Mocking of Christ in the Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, datable to c. 1530-40, which was already in the Spanish royal collection by 1593. It may similarly be compared to the central panel from the Passion Triptych in the Museu de Belles Arts de València that was painted for Mancía de Mendoza y Fonseca, Marquise of Zenete, the third wife of Count Henry III of Nassau. All three of these paintings, as well as several others associated with this group, such as the panels in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, were possibly based on a lost design by Bosch himself. Based on iconography of the two Spanish paintings, the figure at left with the staff here could be interpreted as the high priest Caiaphas, while the man with the green hood next to him could be Pontius Pilate. The largest figure in red with the arrow stuck through his hat, as well as the mocking figure at lower right, both find close parallels in Bosch’s earlier panel in the National Gallery. The present work is also distinguished from the other known examples from this group by the inscription in gold along the lower edge, which reads: 'Ave Rex Judaeorum', executed in an elegant script.