Crucified Christ
PLACE/DATE
India, late 17th century
MATERIALS
Ivory with traces of polychromy
DIMENSIONS
117 x 59,2 x 15,5 cm
INV
AO.112
This image of the dying Christ from the sacristy of the old Convent of São Pedro de Alcântara stands out for its size and sculptural quality, visible in its perfection and anatomical detail.
These aspects become even more evident in the fact that it is an integral piece, made from a single elephant tooth which curvilinear axis is obeyed by its arrangement.
These monumental images were usually commissioned by convents of religious orders or cathedrals for the high altars of their respective churches in Portugal or on the Indian sub-continent. This would have been precisely the case since, from an iconographic point of view, the sculpture reveals the adoption of the less common model of representing the crucifixion with four nails, as advocated by the Spanish painter and treatise artist Francisco Pacheco (1564-1644).