Spanish mannerist school; 16th century.

Spanish mannerist school; 16th century.
‘Christ tied to the column’.
Carved and polychromed wood.
It presents faults and losses on the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 40 x 11 x 12 cm.

In this round sculpture, which represents the image of Christ on the column, also known as Christ tied to the column. It is a Gospel scene and a very frequent iconographic theme in Christian art, within the cycle of the Passion. The scene takes place in the Praetorium in Jerusalem, the centre of Roman power, directed by Pontius Pilate, where Jesus Christ arrived for the second and last time, after passing through different instances (Annas, Caiaphas and Herod). In this biblical episode Christ is exhibited before the one who preferred to release Barabbas rather than him. He is stripped of his clothes and tied to a pillar, where he is subjected to mockery and torture, including the scourging and the crowning with thorns, iconographic denominations which are sometimes totally identifiable with the latter and sometimes precisely differentiated. In this particular sculpture, the crown of thorns is not visible, but the ravages caused to Christ's body by the scourging can be seen. The sculptor shows an image in which Christ is depressed, bent under his own weight, but the rest of the body does not show any great tension, but rather a gesture of concentration and heaviness rather than pain.

During the 11th century Spanish sculpture pursued mainly didactic aims, and its images were conceived as a visual narrative, which always had to be clearly legible. At this time, prior to the search for naturalism that would emerge during the Gothic period, the language is purely conceptual, and works on the basis of symbols and conventions accepted by all. In this sense, the carving is synthetic, representative rather than a reflection of the natural, as is the treatment of the face. Due to its technical characteristics, such as the modelling of the forms and the tones used, this work can be classified as belonging to the Mannerist school.