Child Jesus In Polychrome Lead, Spain XVIIth Century

"Child Jesus In Polychrome Lead"

The lead casts of the Child Jesus are very rare objects, they are normally found in wood. Ours has lived its entire history and its many gaps and deformations give it a new dimension. We can note the strange realism of his mouth which makes this divine Child close to us.

"In 15th and 16th century Italy and Spain, polychrome figures representing Christ, the Virgin or saints, called "sculpture da vestire" or "tallas/imagen da vestir", were commonly used as objects of devotion .
Parents often gave them to their children as a wedding gift or to their daughters who were preparing to enter the convent. These cult figures, generally made up of a simple wooden frame, covered in stucco and papier-mâché, were equipped with removable arms.

Traditionally taking place on an altar in an oratory, they were dressed in ceremonial clothing and adorned with jewelry, particularly for saints' feasts and other religious festivals.
As Cristina Galassi recalls, many of these figures represented holy children or the Child Jesus; They therefore fulfilled a function that was both pious and didactic: they encouraged the children of a home to venerate the saints by teaching them the appropriate rites of adoration."
Jane Murno "Artist's model, fetish model"

Spain XVII th century