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Notes
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This large, atmospheric painting most likely depicts a moment from Christ’s trial before the Sanhedrin (a Jewish judicial body). The composition is symmetrically balanced around the lit candle on the central table: the shimmering flame illuminates the faces of Christ and the man sat facing him, probably the priest Caiaphas, but not much else. The picture hints at why, when he worked in Rome between 1610 and 1620, Honthorst’s nickname was Gherardo della Notte (Gherardo of the night). Although it is shaped like an altarpiece, the picture was likely painted to be housed in the palace of Marchese Vincenzo Giustianiani, Gerrit van Honthorst’s important patron. Giustiniani owned another picture of the same subject painted after 1570 by the Genoese master Luca Cambiaso.
Title
Christ before the High Priest
Date
about 1617
Medium
Oil on canvas
Measurements
H 272 x W 183 cm
Accession number
NG3679
Acquisition method
Bought, 1922
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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