Attributed to Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos

Attributed to GREGORIO VÁSQUEZ DE ARCE Y CEBALLOS (Santa Fe de Bogotá, 1638-1711),
"Ecce Homo.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has a XIX century frame with faults.
Measurements: 45 x 38.5 cm; 75 x 67 cm (frame).
This painting, attributed to Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos, is part of the most intense nucleus of the Passionist iconography cultivated by the master of Santa Fe Baroque. The theme of Ecce Homo, which presents Christ crowned with thorns and exposed to scorn before the Crucifixion, was especially propitious for the Counter-Reformation spirituality, as it invites the faithful to the compassionate contemplation of the redemptive suffering.
The half-length composition, concentrated on a dark background, responds to the tenebrist models spread in the Hispanic sphere and assimilated in the New Kingdom of Granada during the second half of the 17th century. The directed illumination accentuates the lacerated anatomy and the pathos of the face, more introspective than dramatic, a characteristic feature of Vasquez. His painting, deeply religious, translates the European schemes in a language of local accent, where the formal sweetness attenuates the crudeness of the martyrdom.
Vásquez, formed in the intellectual and religious environment of Santa Fe, probably in the workshop of the Figueroa family, developed his work within the framework of the Hispano-American Baroque (c. 1650-1750), adapting European models to the catechetical and spiritual needs of the Creole context. Son of Andalusian descendants established in the 16th century, his painting reflects this double heritage: the Sevillian tradition in the treatment of light and the local sensitivity in the sweetness of the faces and the emotional proximity of the scenes. Most of his production, centered on episodes from the life of Christ, the Virgin and the saints, consolidated a visual imaginary that defined the religious culture of Neo-Granada.