ATTRIBUTED TO JUAN DE VALMASEDA (c.1488 – 1576)... Lot n° 297

Carved and polychrome wood. This extraordinary sculpture is the result of the boost given by the Counter-Reformation to penitential brotherhoods, one of whose tasks was veneration public image of Christ in his passion and death. In the Spain of the 16th and 17th centuries, this type of commission multiplied with figures and scenes intended for procession through the streets of Spanish cities and, within this group of works that reflected the themes of the Passion, those that depicted the themes of the Passion were very frequent. They showed Ecce Homo or Christ tied to the column, a good example being the piece shown here. This theme of Christ tied to the column, which sinks its roots in the Christocentric literature of the late middle Ages by authors such as St. Bonaventure, St. Bridget of Sweden, Ludolph of Saxony or Thomas Kempis, perfectly connected the intimate and devout feeling promoted by the Devotio Moderna; an emotional feeling in the religious experience that found its main expression in the theme of passion. The unpublished work that we present here, due to its formal and stylistic characteristics, can be relate d to the production of Juan de Valmaseda, considered one of the most of the Renaissance sculpture of the Castilian school. Initially trained in Burgos, most of his production is concentrated in the province of Palencia, his work showing great influence from Felipe Vigarny and Diego de Siloé. One of his few documented works is the Calvary in the attic of the main altarpiece of the Palencia cathedral, a work that shares numerous stylistic parallels with this Christ tied to the column. On a base where the flagella are found, the figure of Christ She is shown embracing a tall column, showing a somewhat unstable posture and impressive contortions, typically mannerist, and which severely manifests the effect that the lashes have caused on her body. Another typical feature is his late h, dry and with the skin attached to the skeleton, also showing the swollen veins as they are worked in relief, and a polychromy that emphasizes the wounds suffered in torture through bruises and trails of blood. Measurements:150 x 50 x 60 cm.