Diptych with the Passion of Christ (right wing): Crowning with Thorns and Agony on the Garden

Unknown artist, c. 1400

Download2166 × 3400 px View on a wall Edit

Medium: Tempera and gold on wood (oak)
Size: Unframed: 45.7 x 27 cm (18 x 10 5/8 in.); Including original molding: 52.4 x 34.3 cm (20 5/8 x 13 1/2 in.)
Culture: Austria, Styria, 15th century
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

This diptych, or two-panel painting, is hinged at the center so that it could be opened and closed and easily transported. It was clearly designed as an object for private devotion. The owner would have been able to contemplate the Passion of Christ and pray before these scenes. The top two images depict Christ’s scourging at the pillar and the crowning of thorns, while the lower two show Jesus before Pontius Pilate and in the Garden of Gethsemane. The scenes would have been read clockwise beginning with the lower right. On the back of these panels are remnants of paintings that have since been scraped off.