Crown of Thorns
Authors: Tibble Faith 
Published: December 2024

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.

Jesus’ Crown of Thorns has become one of the most ubiquitous features of Christian imagery. Seen throughout his horrific trial and crucifixion, Jesus’ mock Crown is popularly depicted as cruelly adorned with sharp thorns, bloodying the brow of a beaten, mocked, tormented Jesus. The Crown has become known as a tool of torture; simultaneously depicting Jesus’ humiliation and the malice of his persecutors. This image, which springs readily to the imagination, in fact came surprisingly late to Passion iconography. Indeed, the well-known image of the painful, thorn-like Crown was not fully conceptualized in artistic portrayals of the Mockery scene until at least the 14th century. It was only in the 11th century that the Crown of Thorns began to retain attributes that can be identified in its later popular imagery. These features include such elements as depicting a Crown made with actual thorns and the Crown of Thorns appearing regularly in the context of the scene of the Mockery by Pilate’s soldiers. It is this process, the discovery that the Crown of Thorns underwent a heretofore unrecognized and extensive artistic evolution, which is at the heart of this work.

This book therefore tracks the artistic progression of the Crown of Thorns from when it is first depicted in the 4th century, until the 11th century when it begins to exhibit the artistic trends that are still recognizable today. There are three primary time periods showcased here: the wreath-crown of the 4th and 5th century Romano-Christian art; the 9th century art of the Carolingians and their development of the Mockery scene and Instruments of the Passion; and the 11th century depictions in the Ottonian and Salian art. It is within the Ottonian and Salian depictions that the Crown of Thorns, for the first time, not only appears woven with actual thorn-like material, but also occurs within the context of the Mockery scene. An examination of the highly popularized relic of the Crown of Thorns will also help us understand to what extent this revered object influenced its overall artistic development. Finally, we will conclude by briefly surveying the modern artistic interpretation of the Crown of Thorns through the multitude of media available today.

In conjunction with tracing its artistic trajectory, this study attempts to answer why the depiction of the Crown of Thorns only began to retain popularly identifiable attributes in the 11th century through an examination of the theological, political, and cultural undercurrents that influenced its progress. Particularly, we will illuminate how the ideologies associated with victory, humility, perseverance, and imitation, which permeate the Christian faith, are exemplified in depictions of the Crown of Thorns and Mockery.