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Compare Jesus’s bare, front-facing body with the surrounding soldiers, then look for the crown of thorns and reed offered as a mock scepter.
Manet presents the biblical mockery of Jesus as a physically immediate encounter. The soldiers ridicule him as a king with a crown of thorns, reed, and cloak, while the central figure sits without a halo. Visible brushwork and unidealized flesh made this treatment of a sacred subject controversial in its own time.
Oil on canvas · 190.8 × 148.3 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Realism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers
- Artist
- Édouard Manet
- Date
- 1865
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 190.8 × 148.3 cm (74 7/8 × 58 3/8 in.); Framed: 240.1 × 196.9 cm (94 1/2 × 77 1/2 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of James Deering
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.