Skip to main content
Advanced Search
The Crucified Christ
The Crucified Christ

The Crucified Christ

CultureSpanish
Datelate 13th or early 14th century
MediumWood with paint
DimensionsOverall: 72 inches (182.88 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number44-50/1
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 105
Collections
Exhibition History
N/A
Gallery Label
Images of the crucified Christ were so important to the medieval Church that entire professional artisan groups, or guilds, were devoted to carving depictions of this emotionally laden Christian subject. Recent cleaning and technical analysis of this figure reveal that Christ's body was originally painted in a natural flesh tone. His suffering was explicitly revealed through streaks of red applied over the flesh to simulate blood. Faint remnants of a geometric pattern in red and black are also visible on Christ's perizonium or loincloth. The figure's slightly bulging abdomen, accentuated, linear rib cage, and simplified drapery make it typical of other Spanish Catalan figure sculptures of this period.
Provenance

With Spanish Art Gallery, London, by June 30, 1930;

 

Purchased from Spanish Art Gallery by Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York, stock no. P7087, June 30, 1930-December 1, 1944 [1];

 

Purchased from Brummer, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1944.

 

NOTES:

 

[1] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cloisters Library and Archive, Brummer Gallery Records, Gothic and Renaissance wood statues, Object inventory card number P7087.

Published References

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 67, (repro.), as Corpus Christi.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 134, (repro.), as The Dead Christ.

Dorothy Gillerman, Gothic Sculpture in America, vol. 2, The Museums in the Midwest (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2001), 225-26, (repro.), as Corpus of Christ.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.