"Christ Before the High Priest, c.1617, by Gerrit van Honthorst
The intensely focused light that picks out Christ from nocturnal shadow in this scene of the arrested religious leader’s interrogation is an unmissable clue that Honthorst painted it under the influence of Caravaggio. This Dutch artist made the journey from Utrecht to Rome where he saw Caravaggio’s art. His patron there, Vincenzo Giustiniani, was a banker and aristocrat who had one of the best collections of Caravaggio and had known the savage painter well. But Caravaggio’s sharp lights and darks undergo a change in Honthorst’s sombre scene. The blacks become brown, the candlelight is buttery. This warmer chiaroscuro and golden glow seem positively Rembrandtesque. Honthorst took his version of the Caravaggio style home and it caught on with Dutch painters, lighting Rembrandt’s way."
