cavetocanvas:

Gerrit van Honthorst, Christ Before the High Priest, c. 1620-23

In this painting, Christ is higher than the priest, both physically and morally; Christ has the greater calm, standing serenely with his hands bound, while the priest and his soldiers are agitated. There’s an intimacy to the painting that Honthorst favored in his works; the dramatic lighting cast by the candle in the center of the composition unites the figures, and our position on the other side of the table places us in the room in direct proximity to what’s unfolding before us.