戴荆棘冠冕

Titian made this near the very end of his life, around 1570, when he was an old man and his brush had loosened into broad, smeared strokes that dissolve the figures into light and shadow. He had painted this same subject, Christ crowned with thorns by his tormentors, some 30 years earlier, and that sharper, more polished version now hangs in the Louvre. Setting the two side by side is the clearest way to see how far his hand travelled. Here the soldiers press in with their reed, the colours are earthy browns and muted reds, and Christ's body glows pale against them. He worked much of it with his fingers as much as a brush, building the surface up in rough, flickering touches.