ARTPIT0001596
Scope Of Gerrit Van Honthorst Oil On Canvas 17th Century
Jesus In Front Of Caiaphas
Oil on canvas.
The painting reprises the piece of the Dutch master Gerrit Van Honthorst, realized in 1617 and now preserved in the National Gallery in London.
Dutch by birth, he came to Rome soon after the death of Caravaggio, from whom he assimilated the style that earned him the nickname "Gherardo delle Notti".
While in Rome, the artist was hosted by the Giustiniani family, who commissioned him a piece for his private collection, where it stayed until 1804. Brought to Paris first, in the Bonaparte collection, after more changes of ownership, it finally got to London in 1922.
The painting tells the dramatic episode of the encounter between High Priest Caiaphas and Jesus, during his Passion.
The whole upper part is occupied by the dark: the emptiness, the void, they focus the attention on the two protagonists and on the tragedy that is happening. The scene is strongly static, almost frozen in a specific moment, the accusatory act of the Priest towards Christ, to highlight the intensity of the inner drama, profoundly painful.
In the scenem Caiaphas is on the left, sitting at the table on which the book of Jewish Law is sitting, and holds his finger up in an accusatory tone; Jesus is on the right, standing with his hands tied, in a humble attitude.
There is a candle in the middle, the only source of light, that connects the face of Caiaphas and Jesus', that meet in a game of glances along a diagonal line, and of which the artificial light undelines mercilessly the expressive contrast, the priest's grotesque and angry, while Christ's is bright and composed.
On the background, behind the two protagonists, there are figures of High Priests. They are just shadows in the dark who are waiting on the judgement and their faces are shrouded in the darkness that increases the tension.
The mark of Caravaggio's influence is easy to spot in the contrast between lights and dark and the intensity of their gazes.
The canvas here proposed, half the size of the original but faithful in the stylistic and interpretive forms, was probably commissioned in a smaller size by someone who appreciated the original in Palazzo Giustiniani.
Restored and recanvased in 19th century. There are some names written on the back, signs of ownership.
Frame in style.