Crucifix

Abstract

Fra Vincenzo Pietrosanti da Bassiano carved this crucifix, which was delivered on May 19, 1669 to the church known ever since then, in honor of this object, as the Santissimo Crocifisso in Nemi. The crucifix is carved of wood, with cords added to the gesso to simulate a network of veins. The sculptor, Fra Vincenzo Pietrosanti da Bassiano, was born in 1624 and became a lay Franciscan friar at the age of 15 in 1639, joining the particularly strict and abstemious observant Franciscans. He is documented to have worked as a carpenter (creating ecclesiastical furnishing) and as a sculptor, as well as holding various ecclesiastical offices (such as custodian of the salt stores) in Rome, at Aracoeli, and in Lazio. He must have become aware when young of the earlier works of another observant Franciscan friar, Fra Innocenzo da Petralia, whose sculptures of Christ's sufferings on the cross were so violent that he was even called in front of the Inquisition to defend them from the charge of having too much gore, as well as the work of Fra Stefano da Piazza Armerina, both of whom made works in Rome and Lazio that Fra Vincenzo could have seen. There is a cavity in the back of the carved body that originally held relics (according to a note placed inside the sculpture): fragments of the True Cross, of the column at which Christ was flagellated, of the Holy Sepulcher, of the stone on which Christ sat when crowned with thorns, and of the hole in which the cross was erected. Also placed in the cavity in the sculpture was a printed poem, dedicated to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, about the wounds of Christ, which does survive: "In queste sacre, e livide Caverne/Posati, stanca homai, Anima errante,'Gusta pur da le mani, o da le piante,/O dal petto Divin glorie superne./Qui fra Celle adorate, e sempiterne/Viver potrai d'un Dio romita amante, Qui fra concave strade, e sacrosancte/Potrai far mine à l'empie Rocche Inferne./Piaghe fondi beati, in cui si vede/L'alta pietade à la giustitia unita,/In voi, qui fermo incatenato il piede./In voi Piaghe, del cor prigion gradita, Voragini à la colpa, urne di fede/ Precipiti à la Morte, usci à la vita." Fra Vincenzo belonged to an austere order and was, by all accounts, a deeply devoted man, and the quasi-saintly image of the sculptor developed, after his death, into a stories about him only sculpting crucifixes on Fridays, after flagellating himself and fasting, and even of the head of Christ being miraculously completed when he did not feel up to the task. This crucifix compares most closely to the one Fra Vincenzo made in Ferentino, which is undocumented and assumed to have been completed around the same time. Here the body does not writhe as noticably, but the blood pours forth from the wound in the side in a great three-dimensional torrent that arcs away from the body in the same way. The skin splits to reaveal other raw, rough wounds all over the body. (I do not know whether this work has undergone a recent conservation treatment or if this is the original paint surface -- it looks as if the work may have been repainted later, which is quite a common practice with devotional works.) Christ's lips are parted to reveal a carved tongue and teeth, and the figure almost seems to grimace or even smile through the pain. The figure is elevated, however, by the otherwise elegant-featured and quite serene face and the virtuoso carving of the curling hair, which falls into calligraphic ringlets onto Christ's shoulders.