Castilian school. End of the 13th century - Beginning... Lot n° 2

Castilian school. End of the 13th century - Beginning of the 14th century. Crucified Christ'. Carved wood sculpture with remains of polychrome. 156 x 126 cm. The Crucified Christ that we present is an excellent Gothic piece probably from a Castilian workshop. Christ is attached to a sacred tree-shaped wood by means of three nails-this arrangement, which over the centuries became the most common, was attributed by Lucas de Tuy to the Albigensian heretics, who points out that they conceived it this way with a certain sense of mockery and scorn-, a modality that began to become widespread in the second half of the thirteenth century. Christ presents a face with a serenity typical of the Crucified ones of the 13th century and a general appearance of tranquility, not perceiving any suffering nor excessive bloody traces. The head is ostensibly tilted to the right, showing a narrow and elongated face with closed eyes and mouth, trying to print some pain, but with a concept of serenity usual in this type of crucifixes. It is a sweet death. It shows a wide forehead, with curved eyebrows and a nose of large proportions. The hair is treated in a compact manner and animated through wide wavy locks arranged on the sides of the head over the shoulders, leaving the ears hidden. The beard is small and symmetrical. No diadem or royal crown is preserved. The body, far from showing any kind of rigidity or hieratism, exhibits a slight lateral movement thanks to the displacement of the hip towards the right side. Likewise, the bending of the right knee allows a slight lateral movement that produces a general forward projection. The anatomy shows a soft treatment of the forms, abandoning the schematic appearance with the marked ribs of Romanesque root that is still present in some images of this period. The thorax, waist and abdomen tend to be slender and perfectly defined, with a marked separation between them. The abdomen is slightly bulging. Blood flows from the wound on the side, very marked, as well as from the wound on the feet, but not in excessive quantity. The arms are fully extended almost forming two diagonals. She wears only a perizonium, or purity cloth, carved in the piece itself and adjusted in such a way that it insinuates the anatomy of the hips. It is a long white cloth decorated with golden geometric motifs from which a kind of red rays seem to emerge. It is knotted at the right hip by a scarcely bulging bow. It covers the left knee, leaving the other one uncovered. From the knot come out large folds of great plasticity in the shape of a 'U'. As is characteristic of this type of Crucifixion, it keeps the feet arranged in a slightly pronounced external rotation. The Christ presents some small lack of polychromy, but its general condition is good, with the positive circumstance that it still preserves most of the fingers, something uncommon in this type of pieces. In short, the work was probably made at an imprecise date between the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century by a sculptor of the Castilian milieu. We thank Mr. Javier Baladrón, doctor in History of Art, for the identification and cataloguing of this work.