Granada school; c. 1700.

Granada School; c. 1700.
"Christ carrying the cross".
Polychrome terracotta.
Measurements: 54 x 17 x 26 cm.
In this work the author captures one of the most dramatic moments of the Way of the Cross, the moment in which Christ bears the weight of the cross. In this episode it is common to see Simon the Cyrenian helping Jesus to carry the cross, or Veronica offering him a cloth to wipe his face of blood and sweat. However, the author of this sculpture dispenses with these characters and seeks no theological meaning other than that of Christ's own suffering and voluntary sacrifice on behalf of humanity. In fact, this supreme generosity is reinforced by Jesus' own gaze, which avoids ours, looking down.
Stylistically, it is clear the strong influence in the present work of 17th century Baroque models of the Granada school, and not only in the iconography, but also in the model chosen as an influence for it, in the decoration of the clothes, in the features of the face, etc. Specifically with the work of Torcuato Ignacio Ruiz del Peral (Granada, 1708-1773)m in particular with the Nazarenes attributed to the artist that is in the Church of Castril and in the ex-collegiate church of Huéscar (Granada). He was born in the town of Guadix, although in 1722 he moved to Granada to Diego Mora's workshop in the Albaicín. The aesthetics of that time followed the artistic models of the Baroque, in fact, the creation of the Academy of Noble Arts in 1777, consolidated this artistic trend. The seventeenth-century school of Granada, based on the previous Renaissance school, included great figures such as Pablo de Rojas, Juan Martínez Montañés (who was trained in the city with the previous one), Alonso de Mena, Alonso Cano, Pedro de Mena, Bernardo de Mora, Pedro Roldán, Torcuato Ruiz del Peral, etc. In general, the school does not neglect the beauty of the images and also follows the naturalism, as usual at the time, but it would always emphasize more the intimate and recollection in some delicate images that would be somewhat similar to the rest of Andalusian schools in another series of details but that do not usually have the monumentality of the Sevillian ones.