Exhibition Piece 1

 Caravaggio, The Crowning with Thorns, 1602-04, oil on canvas, 165.5 x 127 cm (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

Caravaggio, The Crowning with Thorns, 1602-04, oil on canvas, 165.5 x 127 cm (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

This piece is titled "The Crowning with Thorns." It was created by Caravaggio in 1602/1604. It is an Italian style Baroque piece, and it is an oil painting on canvas. This painting specifically was designed to be a supraporte, meaning it is a painting meant to be hung over a doorway. This painting as you can see has very neutral colors. It has various shades of yellows and beiges. It also has a beautiful crimson color, which is the cloth the man in the middle is wearing. Based on the lighting and shading, you can infer that this painting was created in dim light. Potentially even at a golden hour. In this painting there are four men. The man on the far left is dressed in a metal armor as well as chartreuse pants. He is wearing a hat and a plume. The man in the forefront middle appears to be nude with a crimson cloth draped around him. He has long brown hair and a slight beard as well. His body looks strained, as you can see in the stretched veins on his neck. Then there are two men behind the man in the middle. These men are muscular with white clothes draped around them. You can see the body of the man on the far right looks rather strong due to the shading and outlining of ab muscle. These two men are holding sticks to the head of the middleman. Overall, the feelings evoked from this painting are intense. The Baroque period was known for having intensely emotional paintings. This painter, Caravaggio, was typically known for intense and powerful paintings. He dabbled with dramatic realism and experimented with bold contrasts of darks and lights. As you can see in this specific painting, the darks and lights contrast giving the painting a specific tense aura. This painting relates to my thesis because it really shows the dark and drastic colors of the Baroque period, as well as the body language in order to narrate a story. In this painting specifically, the story is “The Crowning with Thorns.” This story is the story of a crown of thorns being placed on the head of Jesus. 


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