La Dérision du Christ

Van Dyck painted this in the years around 1628, not long after returning north from a long stay in Italy. He had gone as Rubens's most gifted pupil, all Flemish energy, and came back having stood in front of Titian's canvases in Venice, softer now in his colour and his shadows. You can feel both pulls in this Passion scene. Christ sits stripped and crowned with thorns while his tormentors work around him, one threading a reed into his bound hands as a mock sceptre, since among the charges against him was that he called himself a king. The man staring hardest into Christ's face seems to be changing his mind, his expression tipping from cruelty toward doubt, as if he has begun to suspect who is in front of him.