Against more "restrained" and even "stereotypical" sculptural models regarding the representation of the brutal moment of the flagellation of Christ found in the various Iberian and even European production centers during the Ancient Regime, from the end of the 17th century in New Spain workshops began to develop some variants, especially with regard to the posture and signs of martyrdom, reflecting different attitudes, tastes and even sources of interpretation. While we cannot attribute them with the invention of this iconographic proposal, as with notable variants, these had already been taken to the canvas by Iberian artists (it is worth noting here the canvas executed by Juan de Roleas circa 1616, and preserved in the Madrid Royal Monastery of the Incarnation, or those of Medina Sidonia, Andalusia, or its sublime namesake painted by Velazquez perhaps between 1628-1629, which is currently exhibited at the London National Gallery). What is certain that these will be the artifices of the Vice-royalty period that will provide, in the field of sculpture, (where the present example is a magnificent exponent), their own signs of identity that are repeated in a large number of sculptures.

Some of the sculptures that these assertions, and that we shall only name as mere prototypes, are the dramatic and devout effigy that is located in the lower niche of the altarpiece of Our Lady of Light in the Church of the Professed and the Soumaya collection, both in Mexico City; and, closer to what we are presently analyzing, one that is preserved in the collection of the Museo Nacional del Virreinato (National Museum of the Vice-royalty) in Tepotzotlan. In this set we find that the same formal arguments where Jesus, before the bloody martyrdom to which he was subjected by the executioners of Pilate and before the final sentence, falls perishing, showing in explicit form the signs of punishment through the torn flesh, visible bones or streams of blood running over his body.

Without entering into controversy with what is stated by Moyssen in his classic writing, Mexico, angustia de sus Cristos(Mexico, anguish of its Christs), [1] and maintaining the proposal raised for the above canvases, according to what was written by Saint Bonaventure, [2] we now propose a new approach to our specific topic, using as an argument the book, Mistica ciudad de Dios (Mystical city of God), written by Sor Maria de Agreda. [3] Indeed, if we stop to read the particular vision given by the Spanish nun at the moment of the whipping -in her controversial text in Spain but widely read on Mexican soil -,[4] we see that the sculpture displayed deals, without reaching the excessiveness of the story, with the scene described as, "breaking the immaculate and virgin flesh of Christ our Redeemer, knocking to the ground many pieces of it and uncovering bones in many parts of the back, where they are patently manifest and traced with blood, and in some spaces between the bone as big as the palm of a hand were discovered."[5]

While the above can also be attributed to other representations, the fact is that in analyzing some paintings from New Spain and facing the fact of their dependence on the description in the Mística ciudad de Dios, as indicated by numerous researchers, we found the necessary link. Focusing on the sculpture, its short dimensions leave no doubt that it was made for private worship, either in a cloister or private chapel or private oratory that liked to possess these small representations.

Its correct execution denotes the expertise of its anonymous craftsman, who delighted in naturalism and the verisimilitude of anatomy, without forgetting the novel composition which highlights both the superb craftsmanship of the head of the Redeemer -the agonized visage and eyes resignedly accepting- as well as the body posture itself. In the latter it is worth noting therealism in the extrapolation to the wood of the collapse of the body which, due to the short ropes that bind him to the column, still hold him upright although his legs have given way to the brutal martyrdom, showing us Christ kneeling with a unique crossed arrangement of these limbs.

Commensurate with the quality of the carving is the careful color scheme where the olive tone of the flesh, well-tinged with blue-green glazes depending on the volume, is punctuated by the gory wounds and abundant blood. Indeed, following the Agreda text, bones emerge from the torn flesh, sprouting threads and drops of blood in contrast to dark reddish areas that indicate the formation of the resulting bruises.

In short, what we have here is a unique piece of artistic and iconographic quality wherein the emphasis is put on the Counter-Reformist sensibility which led to later movements, the result of the interpretation of related texts and particular tastes adopted for the clientele of New Spain. It might do well to point out here, in conclusion, that some texts, in addition to the aforementioned Sor Maria de Agreda, which position Juan de Roelas on canvas which with a similar theme painted for one of the side altars of the church of the Merced Sanlucar de Barrameda, Cadiz, which reads: "Hail our King, you alone have pitied us for our mistakes"; being the devoted viewer of this piece the image of the Christian soul, which at that time was portrayed as a child that beholds the scourged Christ. Or the referral of Saint Bonaventure: "And you, lost man, you who are the cause of many injuries and vituperation, would you not weep? Look at the most innocent Lamb, which to rid yourself of the just sentence of condemnation, wanted for your sake to be condemned against all righteousness. He restores that which you stole from him; and you, my perverse soul without entrails, do not pay the gratitude of this devotion nor do you return the affection of the comion! "6

[1]. Moyssen, 1967.

[2]. Agreda, 1765.

[3]. Regarding the devotional sculpture, this theme has been indicated in a tangential manner by Fernandez Garcia, 2003: 37-55.

[4]. An update was found in Fernandez Garcia, 2003.

[5]. Agreda, 1765, II: 818-819.

[6]. San Buenaventura, 1967: 296.

Sources:

Agreda, Sor Maria de, Mystica ciudad de Dios(Mystical City of God), Madrid, [s.e.],1765.

San Buenaventura, Obras(Works), vol. II, Madrid, BAC, 1967.

Fernandez Garcia, Ricardo, Iconografía de Sor Maria Jesus de Agreda. (The Iconography of Sor Maria Jesus de Agreda.) Imágenes para la mística y la escritora en el contexto del maravillosismo del barroco (Images for the Mystic and Writer in the Context of the Marvels of the Baroque), Soria, Caja Duero, 2003.

Moyssen, Xavier, Mexico: angustia de sus Cristos(Mexico: Anguish of its Christs) Mexico, INAH, 1967.