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Head of Christ

(16th century Italy)

Daniel Katz Ltd


Head of Christ

Artist(s): ITALIAN SCHOOL (16th Century )
Dimensions:   38.00cm high (  14.96 inches high)
Description:

This serene head of Christ comes from a one-and-a-half-times lifesize Corpus Christi which would have been viewed from below and from a distance. The grain of the wood enables us to reconstruct the original appearance of that crucifix. Christ, close to death, had lost the strength to hold up his head and it was drooping onto His right shoulder (viewer’s left). Long locks of hair (now lost) fell over this shoulder: originally, these locks made it difficult for the sculptor to carve Christ’s right ear more than summarily. Similarly, the top of His head, which would not have been seen, is carved far-less attentatively than His face and the left side of His head. So, it was of the same iconographic type as the painted wooden Christ which Baccio da Montelupo delivered in 1496 to San Marco, Florence.* And the cork-screw curls are later found on Cellini’s great marble Corpus Christi originally intended for Santa Maria Novella in Florence.** The wood is thought to be walnut, which was used extensively for making furniture, but, being hard and heavy, walnut is a relatively-unusual choice for sculpture.

Sculptural wood-carvings are more widespread in Italy than is often realised, although the master responsible often remains anonymous - and this applies in the present case, unfortunately. The human but classically noble representation of Christ’s face is found also in a painted and gilded statue of St. Roch made for the homonymous oratory at Pergola in the Marches, east of Florence, which was documented in 1528.***

*John turner, ‘Two crucifixes attributed to Baccio da Montelupo’, Sculpture Journal, XI, 2004, pp. 49-54.
**Nicoletta Pons, Repertorio della scultura fiorentina del Cinquecento, ed. by Giovanni Pratesi, Umberto Allemandi 2003, I, pp. 31-32; II, pl. 50 (Baccio) and idem, I, p. 40; II, pls. 253-254 (Cellini)
Grazia M. Fachechi (ed.), Scultura e arredo in legno fra Marche e Umbria, Comune di Pergola 1997, p. 126, illus..