 "Christ Crowned with Thorns" is both a departure from Bosch's usual style and from the way the Passion was customarily depicted at the time, with blood and violence.The painting is deceptively simple and has hidden symbolism.For example, the oak leaves in the hat of the figure at top right would have been understood at the time to refer to Pope Julius II, a member of the della Rovere family; and the other soldier, with the crossbow bolt in his hat, refers to the alliance between the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Louis XII of France in furtherance of the pope's militaristic ambitions.