X-radiograph(s) of "Angel with Crown of Thorns" 

Curator: This is an X-radiograph of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's "Angel with Crown of Thorns," held here at the Harvard Art Museums. What strikes you most about this ghostly rendering? Editor: The stark contrast immediately makes me think of chiaroscuro, that dramatic play of light and dark. It gives the form a potent, almost ethereal presence. Curator: Indeed. Consider the iconographic weight: angels, thorns, symbols of both divine grace and suffering. The X-ray reveals what’s hidden, a kind of symbolic unveiling of the angel's inner essence. Editor: It’s fascinating how the lack of surface detail forces us to focus on the pure sculptural form, the massing of volumes, and the interplay of convex and concave surfaces. Curator: It transforms the angel into an almost primal archetype. We see beyond the baroque flourish, to the underlying spiritual and emotional power residing within this figure. Editor: It certainly shifts my perception of the work; the materiality seems almost irrelevant in this stark radiographic form. A curious reversal, no? Curator: Absolutely. It prompts us to reconsider our expectations of Bernini and of religious iconography itself. Editor: A powerful reminder of the layers of meaning embedded within even familiar images.