Sculpture - Bust Of Christ In Carved Wood, Wooden Head - French School - Folk Art

Second half of the 18th century Southern France Wooden sculpture depicting a bearded Christ, with marked features, wavy hair falling over his shoulders, his eyes raised to the sky in an attitude of silent supplication. The elongated face, the deeply incised bifid beard, and the absence of secondary attributes (crown, stigmata or cross) point towards an iconography of the contemplative or suffering Christ, inherited from the model of the Ecce Homo, but here purified in a meditative vein. Christ is represented outside of any narrative scene, according to a tradition that dates back to the end of the Middle Ages and developed widely in the 17th and 18th centuries, notably in conventual circles and oratory statuary. This type of representation, deliberately stripped down, places the emphasis on the interior expression rather than on the instruments of the Passion, and participates in a piety centered on the face of the Savior and the compassion he arouses. The bust is monoxyle, carved in a dense wood, with a reverse left raw, marked by tool marks, attesting to a semi-scholarly or conventual production. The integrated base forms a massive volume, carved in continuity, without addition. French work from the second half of the 18th century, attributable to a provincial school, probably from the center or the south of the country, in a style still influenced by the religious sculpture of the Grand Siècle, but treated here with a formal simplification specific to popular devotional statuary. Note: old structural crack, small visible gaps, homogeneous patina, stable surface. Note: if the identification as Christ seems the most likely in light of the iconographic canons (bifid beard, celestial gaze, devotional typology), this head could also evoke, in an alternative reading, an Old Testament prophet, a hermit, or a bearded saint belonging to the ancient monastic tradition. Height: 26 cm Delivery: all deliveries are handled by DHL Express only.