Overview

Jesus’ Crown of Thorns has become one of the most ubiquitous features of Christian religious art, but was the crown of history anything like the crown of popular medieval art and piety? The image that springs to mind is that of a bloodied, beaten Jesus, wearing a cruelly fashioned, woven crown made of sharp thorns. But this image is deeply misleading, based on a fundamental misunderstanding (and mistranslation) of the Gospels. Faith C. Tibble rectifies this misunderstanding, showing how The Crown of Thorns underwent a yet unrecognized artistic evolution. Tibble tracks the artistic progression of the Crown of Thorns from when it is was first depicted in the 4th century, until the 11th century, when it begins to exhibit the artistic trends that are still recognizable today, even in modern depictions in art and cinema. Through doing so, Tibble adds new perspective to our understanding of the ideologies associated with medieval Christianity - victory, humility, perseverance - and how those ideologies are exemplified in depictions of the Crown of Thorns. Tibble demonstrates how a simple mistranslation led to a different understanding of the Gospels, and an unexpected trajectory for European art - with profound and unintended consequences.

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9780567713230

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Reviews

In this fresh and compelling account of the changing appearance of the Crown of Thorns in Christian Art, Faith Tibble traces the surprising history of one of Christendom’s most recognizable images. In a fluent and readable style, she offers a layered contextualization of the development of this image in consideration of Christian devotion and historical phenomena. This rich study will be of interest to scholars engaging with art history, history and religious studies, as well as to a broader readership of non-specialists and the general public. * Gil Fishhof, University of Haifa, Israel * In the very best sense of the term, Tibble has presented her readers with a detailed iconological survey of the origin and transformation of the Crown of Thorns from earliest Christian art into the 21st century. We may have always assumed we saw the Crown of Thorns embedded on the head of the suffering and/or crucified Christ in images of the Passion until Tibble opened our eyes to its absence before the eleventh century. She carefully traces its origins from the Classical practice of the acanthus and laurel wreaths, especially within the context of military ceremonials. She takes her readers on an extraordinary journey as she intersperses scriptural, apocryphal, patristic, legendary, and theological texts with liturgical and devotional practices in tandem with the larger societal concerns of politics and the nature of kingship. * Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Georgetown University, USA *

Author Information

Faith C. Tibble completed her PhD and MA degrees in Art History at the University of Haifa in Israel, and has a BA in Classics from Temple University in Philadelphia, USA.

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