Ecce homo between Pontius Pilate and a torturer

Author: Manufacture in Trapani (Bottega dei Tipa?)

Date: 18th century

Material: Alabaster, pink alabaster, stone

Dimensions: cm 34×16 (Pilate), cm 36×16 (Christ and the Harasher)

Location: Milazzo, Fondazione Lucifero

Made known by Caterina Di Giacomo, the sculptural group, depicting the Ecce Homo, is a significant example of that small-format sculpture production in Trapani between the seventeenth and eighteenth century, which was an extraordinary success thanks to the ability of the craftsmen to combine the taste for precious materials (ivory, coral, alabaster, mother-of-pearl, amber) to devotional themes of immediate emotional impact and often linked to local cults such as the famous Madonna di Trapani.

Our work also has its roots in a particularly felt religious tradition, as it is inspired by the statues of wood, canvas and glue (cachert) used during the procession of the Misteri dolorosi on Good Friday in Trapani. In particular it comes from the group sculptural executed by Giuseppe Milanti in the seventeenth century and reworked by Francesco Nolfo in the following century, representing, moreover, an interesting testimony of the condition of the processional fercolo before the addition of the silver balustrade made in 1852.

As in similar cases, the Ecce Homo of Lucifer collection has a mixture of several materials: the figure of Christ and the heads of the other two characters are made of pink alabaster, while the body of Pilate is made of white alabaster and that of the stonework is made of stone. The upper limbs of the latter, the hands of the Roman governor and probably also the column that had to replace the original stick, more in keeping with the iconography in question, appear as artificial. Apart from the later compensations, polymaterism appears to be the result of a precise figurative choice, oriented to exploit the specific qualities of the materials and to privilege the figure of Christ. The pink alabaster, in fact, taken from the caves around Erice (Trapani) – also called stone incarnate for its characteristic chromatic rose with violet veins – was considered particularly suitable to represent the body of Christ, Making the bruises of martyrdom in a natural way without the need for pictorial interventions.

The figure of the torturer is painted, while only some chromatic finishes are preserved in that of Pilate. The content realism, together with an accentuated theatricality, but without dramatic exasperations, have suggested the approach to the style of the Tipa’s workshop. In particular, the statue of Christ is part of a precise vein of which there are many examples similar from the Ecce Homo of the Petralia Sottana Mother Church to the Christ at the column of the Carmine Church in Trapani, the two sculptures of the Diocesan Museum of Sant’Angelo di Brolo.

Active in Trapani in the second half of the eighteenth century, Andrea and Alberto Tipa can be considered among the main local sculptors of the time for finesse and decorative expression, so much. He a statue in ivory of Alberto depicting San Michele and the demons was admired by Houel during his trip to Sicily and later donated by his nephew to Ferdinand II of Bourbon in 1801. Andrea, on the other hand, besides small format sculptures, was an appreciated author of works in marble and wood and executed on commission of the senate of Trapani the marble monument to Carlo III, once in piazza Marina, inaugurated in 1730, while in wood he made the group of the Holy Family of the church of Itria in Trapani and the Crucifix between two thieves of the church of San Nicola of the same city.

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