Spanish or Italian school, XV century. Lot n° 29

Spanish or Italian school, XV century. Ecce Homo. Wood carving, with traces of polychrome. Modern pedestal. Measurements: 45 x 25 x 15 cm; 5 x 20 x 15 x 15 cm (wooden base). Image in round bulk, carved in wood and polychrome, representing Christ of half body, with his hands joined on his chest, following the iconography of the Ecce Homo: with his hands tied and his head covered with the crown of thorns, the theme refers to the episode of the Passion in which he is mocked by the guards and shown before the Jewish people, who will condemn him. With closed eyelids and half-open lips, his countenance suggests emotional pain. The hair has been chiseled strand by strand. We are before a Gothic carving in which solutions that will be typical of the Renaissance are advanced: the careful anatomy and the serene beauty of the face. Here, in spite of transmitting the physical and psychological suffering of a dramatic moment, the sculpture is free of pathos. It has a restrained dramatism in the treatment of the traces of suffering. In contrast to the anatomical schematism that predominated during the early Gothic, in the late Gothic, naturism takes over from the preceding angularity. During the Gothic period, free-standing sculpture, independent of the architectural framework, considerably increased its repertoire, both in typology (sepulchers, pulpits...) and in iconography (new saints, new orders...) But it was, above all, the figure of Christ, preferably in crucifixions but also as Ecce Homo, which was to take shape in Spanish territory during the 14th and 15th centuries.