Valladolid school; beginning of the XVII century.

Valladolid School; early seventeenth century.
"Scourged Christ".
Carved and polychrome wood.
Presents faults and losses.
Measurements: 65 x 22 x 18 cm.
The forms of the anatomy are gentle as they show a rounded finish, especially noticeable in the way the eyes are carved, which contrasts with the expressiveness and pathos of the blood. The figure of Christ is shown standing and with his hands tied, a feature that indicates the moment he is being represented.
From the end of the 16th century a unique sculptural school will develop in Valladolid, characterized by a violent realism in which pain and pathos are exalted, as we see in the work of its greatest representative, Gregorio Fernández (1576-1639). This artistic tradition will lead to the fact that the vallisoletanas will be sacred images full of pain, tremendously pathetic, with a marked dynamism and faces of great expression, without falling however in vulgarities. They are figures that oscillate between the dramatism of physical and moral pain (Piedades, Cristos yacentes...) and the evasion of the mystical experience (representations of Saint Teresa, for example), which is transmitted through calm attitudes and a sober gesticulation, leaving the face and hands the greatest expressive weight. Valladolid was a sculptural focus of the first order in the 16th century, a condition that it would maintain in the Baroque period. This was influenced by the impulse given to art by the establishment of the court in the city, with which powerful people settled there and promoted culture. The wealthy clientele were frequent benefactors of convents and churches, which at that time needed new images and altarpieces to adapt their precincts to the counter-reformist ideals.