Ecce Homo

Author: Unknown southern sculptor

Dating: Second half sec. XVII – first quarter sec. XVIII

Material: Patterned and painted paper

Dimensions: cm 23x20x19

Location: Milazzo, church of San Giuseppe

The head of Christ, slightly smaller than the natural size, is enclosed in a wooden and glass case. At the present state of studies, in the absence of documentary references, we do not know how the sculpture reached the Milazzese church of San Giuseppe and for what vicissitudes its original appearance has been modified: It is evident that the figure has been resected at the base of the neck. Most probably it is one of the numerous specimens of Ecce Homo half-bust, often contained inside the case, although it cannot be completely excluded that it was a Christ with a full-length column. The theme of the Broken Christ dominates all the others in the crucial period between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 17th century. As a result of the powerful impulse given by the Counter-Reformation, the production of sculptures depicting the Ecce Homo, the Christ tied to the column or deposed, has multiplied. In the seventeenth century, the depiction of the Passion is enriched by the search for dramatization and theatricality typical of the new taste and, also due to the influence of Spanish culture, the custom of sacred representations of Holy Week is intensified.

The iconography of the full-length Ecce Homo, used for Easter processions, or that of the half-bust to be stably or periodically displayed on the altars, enormously widespread in all the provinces of the Spanish Viceroyalty, It continues without significant variations until the eighteenth century, in compliance with conventional compositional solutions strictly dependent on devotional needs. The Milazzese opera punctually repeats the formal characteristics typical of this substantial production, still in great part to be studied further, which has close links with that of the Iberian production of the same period. From Spain must have come many such products made of wood, paper mache or terracotta, which became an inevitable reference for the local artists.

In deference to these models, the Christ is depicted with half-open mouth and teeth on display, eyelids lowered by half and copious blood flowing from the forehead down to the neck. The face, tilted to the right with locks of hair falling on the shoulder and rising up behind the ear on the left side, expresses resignation and quiet suffering. Unfortunately altered by clumsy repaints, the original color is barely legible in the complexion, which appears darkened by a heavy varnish, and in the polychromy finishes with light red strokes around the eyes that, together with the greenish color on the cheekbones, They were intended to restore to the faithful the face unlivable and suffering for the beatings suffered.

The rendering of details closely related to the emotional involvement intent of the work is entrusted mainly to the pictorial decoration, while the modeled is characterized by the synthesis in the definition of forms and softness in the strands of hair that surround the face or in the two-pointed ringed beard, also due to the specific technique of the processing in papier-mâché that cancels the incisiveness and the possible hardness of the carving on wood. The eyebrows, roughly painted as well as the irises, follow that characteristic comma pattern on the attachment of the nose, frequently visible in the Spanish prototypes, which suggests the groaning of the forehead due to suffering. The adherence to the modes of Iberian sculpture, in particular that of Andalusian appears evident; although with due differences in quality of execution, you can read numerous tangencies with the works of Pedro Roldán and his circle, which represent the last great achievement of Seville baroque sculpture, which from the end of the sixteenth century boasted names of excellent craftsmen such as Juan De Mesa, Gregorio Fernández and Juan Martínez Montagnés.

The circulation of these Spanish prototypes, which sometimes transited from Naples or came directly to Sicily through the Mediterranean routes, allows us to assume that the artist could have made direct reference to the Andalusian cultural context; In fact, it seems more likely that he is a southern artist of “Iberian culture” rather than one Spanish sculptor. The formal characteristics of this type of works, with a predominantly devotional function, are repeated unchanged from the beginning of the seventeenth century until the late eighteenth century. For this reason it is difficult to attribute a precise dating to the sculpture, which must be traced back to a fairly long period of time between the second half of the seventeenth century and the first quarter of the eighteenth century.

Buda V., Lanuzza S. (a cura di), Tesori di Milazzo. Arte sacra tra Seicento e Settecento., Milazzo 2015