Aelbrecht was born into a family of famous Netherlandish painters: he was the son and pupil of Dieric Bouts the Elder (ca 1415 –1475), brother of Dieric Bouts the Younger and uncle of Jan Bouts.

The martyrdom and sufferings of Jesus Christ depicted with deep compassion are one of the central images of Christian art. Christ is shown wearing the crown of thorns; the drops of blood, weary face, tearful eyes, veins on the forehead and neck swollen by torture are painted with great realism. These dramatic, usually small pictures were created especially to evoke the state of conscious meditation in the viewer. Standing in front of the image of Christ who had suffered physical and mental pain to atone for man’s transgressions, the viewer could better understand the existential essence of altruism. The earliest example of interpretation of this theme is dated 1520 and is displayed at the back of the altarpiece wing in Nationalgalerie, Berlin. The present version of fine technical quality is typologically close to the Christ Crowned with Thorns in the Bratislava Narodna Galerija (V. Henderiks: Albrecht Bouts 1451/1455-1549, Brussels 2011, p. 398, no. 188).