Christ at the Column (Antonello da Messina)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Christ at the Column |
| Antonello da Messina, 1476-1478 |
| Oil on table |
| 25,8 × 21 cm |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris |
Christ at the Column is a small painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina, finished around 1475. It is currently housed in the Louvre of Paris.
Painted in his final years, the pictures shows Antonello's assimilation of the Flemish and Venetian influences into a mature art. For long time the small size led the scholars to think that the work had been mutilated of the lower part, and that originally a parapet separated Christ from the watchers. This theory has been proved to be wrong.
The face of Christ was a common theme in Antonello's art: however, portraying Christ in the middle of his pain, in the moment in which the tortures has just begun, Antonello managed to obtain an emotive impact sometimes lacking in his similar works.
As usual, Antonello devoted a high attention in the rendering of details: the sweated hair, the beard (each hair of which can be singled out), the half open mouth, in which teeth and tongue can be hinted, the first stripes of blood marking the face, the perfectly transparent drops.
