The ten marble angels that line the Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome - the bridge leading from the city to the Castel Sant'Angelo - constitute one of the most ambitious sculptural programs of the Baroque period, and the Angel with the Crown of Thorns, personally carved by Gian Lorenzo Bernini around 1668, is athe theological and artistic centerpiece of the ensemble.
The project was commissioned by Pope Clement IX in 1667. The bridge, originally a Roman construction, crossed the Tiber along the principal pilgrim route to Saint Peter's Basilica. Clement's intention was to transform it into a devotional experience: pilgrims crossing the bridge would pass through a sequence of marble angels, each one holding an instrument of the Passion - the column of the flagellation, the crown of thorns, the nails, the superscription ('INRI'), the sponge of vinegar, the spear of Longinus, the sudarium (Veronica's veil), the robe and dice, the cross - a visual Via Crucis suspended in open air above the Tiber.
Bernini designed all ten angels and personally carved two: the Angel with the Crown of Thorns and its companion, the Angel with the Superscription. Pope Clement IX was so deeply moved by these two originals that he refused to expose them to the weather and ordered copies made for the bridge, keeping Bernini's originals indoors. They now stand in the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, near the Spanish Steps, where they can be seen in conditions that preserve their extraordinary surface detail.
The Angel with the Crown of Thorns holds the crown in both hands, gazing upon it with an expression that defies easy categorization: there is sorrow in the face, but also a quality of reverential contemplation - even wonder. The swooping, windswept drapery that characterizes all the bridge angels creates an effect of celestial movement, as if the figures have just alighted or are about to depart. The crown itself is rendered with botanical realism: each thorn is individually articulated.
The theological depth of the image lies in this attitude of wonder. An angel contemplating the crown of thorns - the instrument of Christ's humiliation - with expressions of sorrow and reverence enacts the Pauline mystery of Philippians 2:8: 'he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross.' Isaiah 53:5 - 'he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities' - provides the prophetic frame. The beautiful angel holding an ugly instrument of torture is a visual embodiment of the felix culpa: the fortunate fall whose remedy was the Incarnation and Passion.
The bridge angels as a whole represent Bernini's most sustained meditation on the theology of the Passion, and the Angel with the Crown of Thorns is its finest expression. Visitors to Rome who wish to see Bernini's original carving should visit Sant'Andrea delle Fratte; those who want the experience Clement IX intended should cross the Ponte Sant'Angelo and pause before each of the ten figures in turn.