Christ Derided – Workshop of Palma il Giovane (Venice, 1549 – 1628)

Oil painting on canvas of Venetian origin and dating back to the early 17th century.
It depicts Jesus, caught in a particular moment of the Passion: it is in fact the iconography of the so-called "mocking Christ", in which he is stripped, adorned with the crown of thorns and given a cane as a scepter, in mockery of the his self-proclamation as “King of the Jews”.
In our opinion, the work can be attributed to the workshop of Jacopo Negretti, known as Jacopo Palma il Giovane (Venice, September 1549 – 17 October 1628).
In particular, two paintings concerning episodes of the Passion of Christ are worthy of note, both preserved in the Collection of the Accademia Carrara, attributed to the Workshop of Palma il Giovane, and dated to the first quarter of the seventeenth century.
The first work depicts the Flagellation of Christ, the second is a Lamentation over the dead Christ.
The drapery and the skillfully crafted anatomies, the pale color of the complexion, and the general pictorial style appear immediately similar, whose decisive brushstrokes build the figures as a whole, in line with the tradition of the Venetian school.
What is most striking, finally, is the somatic resemblance of Christ, also thanks to the lighting choice adopted on the face, characterized by an excellently executed chiaroscuro; in fact, we see Jesus' forehead and the upper part of his nose emerging from the darkness.