Cristo coronato di spine

Bosch painted this small panel around 1500, and it is unusually calm for him. No burning cities, no strange hybrid creatures, just Christ in white at the centre and four men pressing in close around him. Two soldiers in armour lean from above, two other men crowd in below, one in a spiked dog collar, one reaching for the robe. Each of the four is a different type of cruelty, studied at close range. What makes it hold you is that Christ is not looking at any of them. He gazes straight out, quietly, meeting the eye of whoever stands in front of the picture and folding them into the scene. Examinations of the layers beneath the paint show that Bosch first drew the tormentors handling Christ more roughly, then softened their gestures in the finished work.