Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Crowning with Thorns
Valentin de Boulogne French
Not on view
Valentin returns to a theme he had treated early in his career, but without the raw naturalism that characterized that work. There is a classical beauty as well as dignity about the resigned figure of Christ. His tormentors, though brutal, have gained in psychological complexity. X-rays reveal that the picture is painted over an abandoned portrait of the papal nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini: Valentin was therefore clearly in the cardinal’s employ.
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