Exceptional and rare Christ depicted nude. Meuse Valley, late 12th-early 13th century.

Exceptional and rare Christ depicted nude. Meuse Valley, France, late 12th-early 13th century.
Walnut wood.
Polychrome partially preserved.
In good state of preservation.
Bibliography consulted:
-Paul Thoby, Le Crucifix, des Origines au Concile de Trente, Bellanger, Nantes, 1959.
-Jacqueline Boccador, Edouard Bresset, Statuaire Médiévale de collection, Tome I, Les clefs du Temps, 1971.
Measurements: 174 x 168 cm.

The originality of this Christ lies in its nudity. Whether it was made in order to be presented in the simplest of attire or covered with real cloth as a perizonium, this particularity makes this Christ a very rare example. In fact, there are only a few examples of nude Christ, generally made in the Renaissance, the most famous being the one sculpted by Michelangelo and today exhibited in the Basilica of Santo Spirito in Florence.

The important and rare Christ that we now offer presents a rigid physiognomy with slightly bent knees. His arms open in a cross end in hands with thin and long fingers. The head is bent over the chest to the right, a representation that conforms to the Scriptures: "And bowing his head, he yielded up his spirit" (John, XIX-30). The elongated face of Christ, with forked beard, slightly sunken cheeks, straight nose and bulging eyelids under arched superciliary arches, possesses a certain anatomical reality. With open mouth and half-closed eyes, the supplicant has just let out a last breath of life. Although this is a representation of a dead Christ, there is no pathos or exaggerated expressiveness. He is calm and indifferent to pain. As the sculpture is intended to be viewed from below, Christ's hair has not been given a specific treatment. It is a simple hair in the form of a cap, with no trace of locks. It is also possible that a crown of thorns girded the head of Jesus, as suggested by the presence of drops of blood on his forehead.

Formally, this Christ corresponds to a transitional work between the 12th and 13th centuries. In fact, it remains faithful to the horizontality and hieratism of the oldest representations. The anatomy of Christ's body does not yet have the naturalism that it will adopt from the middle of the 13th century. The ribs are vigorously sculpted. This way of depicting the human body responds to a canon inherited from Byzantine art that sometimes continues until the beginning of the 14th century. However, some indications clearly place this Christ among the works of the 13th century. The sculptor sought greater realism in the expression of the face. The thumbs parallel to the other fingers, the overlapping of the feet in internal rotation represent an innovation with respect to the 12th century.