Formal Properties Amplifying Devotion
Devotional artworks function to inspire more attentive and emotive worship in the viewer (Farrar 480).
The size of the painting is in keeping with that of other devotional images. The height is measured 16.73 inches, the width 12.01 inches ("Christ Crowned with Thorns"). Were the viewer, adult, to stretch their hand across the Christ’s face, the viewer would find the face close in size to their hand - the painting is life-size. Further, there is a parapet placed in the front of the Christ at the very bottom of the painting. This detail positions the Christ in a specified space. These formal choices deepen the sense of sharing not only real suffering but real space with the Christ.
All devotional images’ creators, at their highest aspiration, seek to inspire acute psychological reactions - emotion, contemplation leading to agony which cleanses, redeems (Farrar 479). Antonello’s Christ is different in that the intended psychological reaction is made manifest within the painting. The Christ himself is in a moment of emotional transformation. This is common in devotional images, but the Christ himself is in the same moment of emotional transformation as the viewer would be, a moment of simplified suffering. This is supported by the fact that in his other paintings of this time in the Passion, Antonello added more specific, Biblical detail such as the rope knotted about the Christ’s throat (Barbera et al. 42). Further, the crown of thorns is rendered in low contrast, dark crown against dark hair. It is not at all the focal point of the painting.
In this way, the viewer is most drawn to simply the Christ’s face. The viewer is drawn to its expression, deeply moving for its relatability. The viewer is drawn to the eyes.
The incredible humanity of this Christ must have been informed in part by Antonello’s subscription to the Renaissance ideal of humanism (Barbera 7). In this time in which human agency was the most treasured force, God truly was understood in the image of man, that of a Christ of earthly suffering (Farrar 479). And through the eyes is facilitated a moment of connection between the image of Christ - effectively, Christ - and the worshipper. Antonello crafted oil eyes which gave such life to the movements of the mind (“Christ Crowned with Thorns n.p.).