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The Mocking of Christ

Artist Matthias Stomer (Dutch, ca. 1600–after 1650)
Title The Mocking of Christ
Date Ca. 1640
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions Framed: 61 × 82 × 3 3/8 in. (154.9 × 208.3 × 8.6 cm)
Stretcher: 51 in. (129.5 cm)
Credit Line Evan F. Lilly Memorial Fund, Gift of Thomas T. Solley, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 82.47

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About this Work

This picture conflates two separate episodes from the Passion of Christ—his mocking and his later crowning with thorns—into a single composition. Like Caravaggio, Matthias Stomer used artificial lighting sources to create a theatrical scene. Here, a torch provides dramatic contrasts of light and dark. Christ’s mockers, who wear contemporary clothes, also reflect Caravaggio’s use of lower-class Roman and Neapolitan models in religious paintings. Utrecht-born Stomer spent most of his life in Naples and Sicily, where he came into direct contact with the first generation of Caravaggio’s followers.


1982, Indiana University Art Museum purchase from Matthiesen Fine Art, Ltd., London, England, with funds from Evan. F. Lilly

c. 1978–1982, Matthiesen Fine Art, Ltd., London, England [1]

Before 1947, Marchese Guiseppe Persichetti-Ugolini de Guidici, Rome, Italy [2]

Notes:

[1] Burlington Magazine, June 1978, lists Matthiesen Fine Art, Ltd. as the work's owner.

[2] This provenance provided by Matthiesen Fine Art, Ltd.

Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"The Mocking of Christ | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2024. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=82.47