Testa di alabardiere

This weathered face is a survivor of a larger scene. It was cut from a painting of Christ being crowned with thorns and mocked, and the man in the wide-brimmed hat and red coat would have been one of the tormentors crowding around Christ, a soldier leaning on his halberd. At some point the panel was damaged or divided, and only his head was kept. Whether Hieronymus Bosch himself painted it is not settled. The Prado and many scholars now file it under a follower working in his manner around 1500 rather than the master's own hand. What remains is a single studied character, lined and heavy-lidded, the kind of coarse everyday face Bosch and his circle liked to press up against the sacred.