Spanish school; 17th century.
"Christ on fire".
Earthenware.
Measurements: 36 x 28 x 12 cm.
Round sculpture made of terracotta with a religious character. In this sculpture the author has reproduced the image of Christ with his hands crossed on his chest, a gesture that reminds us to a great extent of the iconography of Christ in prison, despite the fact that in the sculpture no detail can be seen that shows this attitude. The figure of Christ is dressed in a red cloak, symbolising the moment of the Passion. The sculpture stands out for the sobriety and austerity of the elements, thus confronting the viewer only with the figure of Christ. In which the sculptor has not only emphasised the monumentality through the elongation of the proportions, but also, with the polychromy, has managed to create an expressive image in which the suffering and the sufferings of Christ can be observed.
Spanish Baroque sculpture is one of the most authentic and personal examples of our art, because its conception and form of expression arose from the people and their deepest feelings. With the economy of the state in ruins, the nobility in decline and the clergy heavily taxed, it was the monasteries, parishes and confraternities of clerics and laymen who encouraged its development, with the works sometimes being financed by popular subscription. Painting was thus obliged to express the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when Counter-Reformation doctrine demanded a realistic language from art so that the faithful could understand and identify with what was depicted, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content to increase the fervour and devotion of the people. Religious themes were therefore the preferred subject matter of Spanish sculpture of this period, which in the early decades of the century was based on a priority interest in capturing the natural world, gradually intensifying over the course of the century in the depiction of expressive values, which was achieved through movement and the variety of gestures, the use of light resources and the representation of moods and feelings.