A crown twisted from thorns. A reed pressed into his hand like a scepter. A soldier's grin inches from his face. Carl Bloch's Christ with Mocking Soldier (1880) takes a scene the Gospels cover in a few verses and narrows it to two men and a joke that has already stopped being funny — because the man wearing the crown is looking straight out of the canvas, and he is not looking away. Quick facts Artist: Carl Bloch (1834–1890) Date: 1880 Medium: Oil on canvas Collection: BYU Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah (held privately for decades before its rediscovery) Notable fact: Painted the year after Bloch completed his 23-painting cycle on the life of Christ for the chapel at Frederiksborg Castle Carl Bloch, Christ with Mocking Soldier, 1880. Oil on canvas. BYU Museum of Art. Image via the Sapiens Verbum print shop. A Scene the Gospels Sketch in Three Lines Matthew, Mark, and John each give this moment barely a paragraph: Roman soldiers strip Jesus, th...