Giandomenico Tiepolo was the elder of Giambattista’s two artist sons, and his closest collaborator. While training with his father prepared him to assist with his mural decorations, Giandomenico also established himself as an independent painter, with his own commissions. In 1762 he accompanied his father to Spain, where the latter had been commissioned to paint a fresco on the dome of the Throne Room in Madrid’s Royal Palace. Giandomenico remained there until his father’s sudden death on 27 March 1770, and returned to Venice within the year, beginning an original creative phase that lasted until his own death on 3 March 1804. The Crown of Thorns, 1771-72, is one of a series of eight scenes from Christ’s Passion that the artist made in Venice after returning from Madrid. While he painted all eight in Venice, Giandomenico may have received the commission towards the end of his stay in Spain. All eight works were presented publicly at the Venetian Piazza San Marco on 31 August 1772, a practice that occurred on specific occasions when works were to leave the city. Nothing is known of the conditions stipulated in the contract extended by the secular clergymen of San Felipe Neri in Madrid, if there was a contract at all. Therefore no documents demonstrating the possible limitations imposed on the works’ format, total numbers of scenes, size and so on have been identified. However, it does seem possible that limitations existed that decisively affected the artist’s work. This can be deduced from the very low viewpoints and the anatomical deformation of certain figures, which Giandomenico may have employed deliberately to correct optical distortions resulting from the painting being hung at a great height. All of the figures may have needed to be visible to a large number of worshippers at once, in much the same way as the Stations of the Cross; although that is not the exact subject of this group.

Unlike other canvases on similar themes, these works are deliberately claustrophobic and disquieting, despite the fact that the events take place outdoors. To achieve this feeling Giandomenico crowds the foreground with figures, including those necessary to represent the story as well as a few others needed to create the highly dramatic atmosphere that invites the viewer to reflect upon the events being represented. This atmosphere, the artificial gradation of colours, the theatrical props and the almost expressionist appearance of some of the faces, imbue the scene with a deliberate feeling of unreality that transports us to an event of particular religious significance and incomparable dramatic possibilities.

The artist’s intention seems to have been to convert each representation into a symbol, a depiction of the sacrifice imposed upon the Son of God. Perhaps that is why almost all of the figures he depicts have an appearance of serene contentment, avoiding especially melodramatic gestures. The pathos comes not from their faces, but from believers’ identification with the sense of drama; a sense that alludes not only to Christ’s physical suffering and torment, but also to the resignation with which he bore this tragedy, which imbues his suffering with a transcendent dimension. That may be the most important characteristic of this entire series: the combination of all Giandomenico’s technical and expressive resources to achieve a dramatic atmosphere, not usually associated with the world created by the Tiepolo family, who have generally been considered more capable of creating effects than of provoking sentiments.