Christ In Ivory - Spain, End Of The 17th Century

This impressive Christ in ivory testifies to the prodigious mastery achieved by the Spanish sculptors of the Baroque period. Represented alive on the cross, his head tilted slightly to the right, raised towards the heavens, Christ here offers to the faithful the contemplation of his bruised body. With both feet together on a suppedaneum which has now disappeared, he is dressed in a perizonium held in place by a finely chiseled cord. The bumpy folds of the latter contrast with the powerful but fluid treatment of the clinical anatomy of Christ, tempered by the extreme sensuality of the materials. The uncompromising expressiveness of the Savior's suffering face bears the mark of a sculptor of Spanish tradition, active in the course of the 17th century.