PhD Program in Historical studies
Gregorio Fernández’s “Cristo yacente”
María Bolaños Atienza, Director of the National Sculpture Museum, shows us one of the most important works preserved in the permanent exhibition at the Museum in Valladolid.
This version of the Cristo yacente by Gregorio Fernández is one of the masterpieces of Spanish Baroque sculpture in polychromed wood. The author, a native of Galicia, created other examples of Cristos yacentes, now preserved at various Spanish institutions (for example, in Valladolid as well, in the museum of the Real Monasterio de San Joaquín y Santa Ana or in the Iglesia de San Miguel y San Julián). The work is characterized by its typical Baroque drama, a work marked by extreme realism that strikes the senses, capable of provoking a very intense emotional impact. It was built on behalf of the Jesuits, the great promoters of art in Spain and in Europe at the time: the spirit of teaching under which the work was conceived and crafted is clear. There is a strong contrast between the ideal disembodied greatness of God and the male nude Jesus, between the idealization of the body and all too realistic depiction of wounds.