Katalog zbiorów malarstwa krajów romańskich, red. Bożena Steinborn, Wrocław 2012, seria Katalogi zbiorów Muzeum Narodowego we Wrocławiu, s. 228, kat. 91, il. s. 229
In his third prophecy foretelling his own Passion and death, Christ refers to the Flagellation (Matt. 20:19). Pontius Pilate ordered the scourging of Christ just before he was led away to be crucified (John 19:1). In the Early Modern era, depictions of Christ before the Flagellation are quite rare: much more often he is shown during or after the Flagellation. In Renaissance painting, the subject provided a vehicle for portraying the male nude rather than most unsightly results this extremely cruel and oftentimes lethal punishment inflicted on the hapless and volatile human body. A case in point, Donato Bramante’s Christ at the Column (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) from ca. 1490 depicts his body yet unscarred.
The slumping figure of Christ, naked except for a loincloth, is shown in left profile occupying the composition’s centre. His fair complexion contrasts with the uniform, dark, umber-and-black background. The strong light coming from the upper right models the body, the sculptural drapery of the white loincloth and the gray cloth with umber glazes in the composition’s bottom left corner (probably Christ’s removed tunic) and a bunch of rods on top of it. A truncated gray column is visible behind Christ’s back.
Zurbarán scholars date the piece to 1661. It was supposedly patterned after Lucas Vostermann’s engraving after Gerard Seghers’ painting at St Michael’s Church in Ghent. In my opinion, both Seghers’ stay in Madrid ca. 1620 and his Descent from the Cross at the Royal Castle in Seville, featuring the face of Christ identical to the Wrocław painting, suggest that Zurbarán’s contact with the work and ideas of the Flemish Caravaggionist might have been direct.
[Bożena Steinborn]
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