SOUTHERN NETHERLANDISH, BRUSSELS OR LOUVAIN, EARLY 16TH CENTURY | CHRIST ON THE COLD STONE

Private collection, Belgium

Tenerife, San Cristobel de La Laguna, Lumen Canariense, 2003-2004;

Santiago de Compostela, Museo Diocesano, Monasterio San Martino Pinario, 2004 

R. Didier in Stella Peregrinantium, La Virgen de Prima y su tiempo, exh. cat. Museo Diocesano Monasterio de San Martino Pinario, Santiago de Compostela, 2004, pp. 350-51, no. 50

The motif of Christ on the Cold Stone developed in the Low Countries, and gained currency during the 16th century, particularly in sculpture. Later, it also disseminated to other European regions, in particular in modern-day France. The Brussels school of carving was the epicentre of this dissemination, and many models of the type were produced there - compare, for instance, to a Christ in Distress in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. R.B.K.1955-83, dated circa 1520) and another in Brussels (op. cit. no. 29, attributed to the Brussels region, circa 1515). 

The present statuette is a faithful interpretation of the Brussels model, and as such, could be attributable to that region. However, in the Santiago exhibition (op. cit. p. 350), the slight variety in the facial features compared to the Brussels workshop leads Didier to conclude a more likely origin in Louvain, where the carving could be said to display slightly less variety, and the facial features are more generalised - as opposed to the more individualised Brussels type. 

RELATED LITERATURE

A. Huysmans (ed.), La sculpture des Pays-Bas méridionaux et de la Principauté de Liège, XVe et XVIe siècles, exh. cat. Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, 1999, no. 29