17th Century, Flemish Bronze Christ

Crucified Christ 
Attributed to Jérôme Duquesnoy the Younger (1602-1654), Flanders, first half of the 17th century
Bronze
Height: 72 cm

Jesus is depicted at the precise moment described in the Gospel of Luke 23:46. He addresses God before expiring: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit"  
("Et clamans voce magna Iesus ait: 'Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum'; et haec dicens exspiravit.")

Everything contributes to conveying the dramatic tension of this moment: the stretching of the body revealing the muscles, the head thrown back, mouth open, eyes raised to Heaven, the tormented folds of the perizonium, and the hair in motion.

The casting is admirable, as is the patina. This unique bronze is to be related to one of the finest Christ on the cross from the period. It is an ivory Christ signed Jérôme Duquesnoy (on the shoulder blade: D.J. me fecit) and kept in Mechelen, at the factory of the Church of St. Catherine, in the Beguinage chaplaincy (see illustration). The sculptural qualities of this Christ and the signature have supported this attribution.

Although similar in size, some details differ between the two works. Our sculpture is not a bronze cast made from the ivory, but a profoundly original work, first modeled in clay or wax, and then cast in bronze. Nothing, therefore, precludes seeing this as an original creation by Jérôme Duquesnoy.