The Crucifixion

This powerfully composed and dramatically staged composition of the Crucifixion is an outstanding example of the work of Pedro Orrente, a leading exponent of modernity in seventeenth-century Spain. Orrente is sometimes known as the Spanish Bassano because of his admiration for the paintings of the Bassano family, with their Old Testament stories treated in terms of genre. When he was in Venice—probably at some point between 1602 and 1605—he must have had a close relationship with Jacopo Bassano’s son Leandro, but this was only one source for the impressive naturalist style he evolved during the time he spent in Italy. He was also very much attuned to the innovations of Caravaggio in Rome. Returning to Spain, he established an outstanding reputation in Murcia, Valencia, Toledo (where he knew El Greco and El Greco’s son Jorge and left a series of notable works), and Madrid (where his work entered the royal collections). This picture, a recent discovery, is a particularly accomplished example of his mature style. The composition was both replicated by the artist’s studio and copied. The present work is completely autograph and superior to that of three other principal versions/copies, the finest one of which is in the cathedral museum of Badajoz (it is, however, not well preserved; see Angulo Iñiguez and Peréz Sanchez, Historia de la pintura española, escuela toledanad e la primera mitad del siglo XVII, Madrid, 1972, pp. 243, 318–19). Another, poorly preserved, version is in the church of Santa Isabel in Madrid, and a third, very inferior version—almost certainly a copy—is in the parish church of Villa de Los Realejos (for which, see López Plasencia, "Un Calvario atribuido a Pedro Orrente en Canarias," Boletín Museo e Instituto Camón Aznar 97 (2006), pp. 173–79, who, however, judged it to be autograph). The leading expert on the artist, José Gómez Frechina, has studied the Museum’s picture first hand and has judged it a work of exceptional interest and quality (notes in departmental archive). To judge from the version of the composition in the cathedral museum of Badajoz, which is of the same dimensions, the picture must have served as a small altarpiece. It probably dates from the late 1620s, though Orrente’s work shows a consistency that makes dating tentative at best.

Christ is shown crucified between two thieves on the hill of Golgotha, outside Jerusalem, which is seen in the distance. A man has climbed a ladder and turns back to dip a sponge at the end of a pole into a bowl of vinegar to give Christ to drink. In the lower left three men—two are clearly identifiable by their attire as soldiers—throw dice for Christ’s garment. The standing figure beneath Christ’s cross is Saint John—the "beloved disciple"—while his mother and the holy women, their covered heads bowed, can be seen climbing the hill at the right. A dog—a typical feature of Bassano’s work—rests nonchalantly in the foreground. The moment shown is quite specific and is based on the Gospel of Matthew 27:45-49: "From midday a darkness fell over the whole land, which lasted until three in the afternoon; and about three Jesus cried aloud, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’, which means, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Some of the bystanders, on hearing this, said, ‘He is calling Elijah.’ One of them ran at once and fetched a sponge, which he soaked in sour wine, and held it to his lips on the end of a cane. But the others said, ‘Let us see if Elijah will come to save him.'" If the composition, with the crosses aligned along a diagonal, shown against an appropriately turbulent sky, recalls the work of the great Venetians Veronese, Tintoretto (see fig. 1 above), and Titian, the naturalistic treatment of the figures—especially the group of soldiers rolling dice for Christ’s garments in the lower left—reveals the artist’s precocious awareness of Caravaggio. The effect is dramatic and profoundly moving.

Keith Christiansen 2014

Private collection, Madrid (until 2013); [Christopher González-Aller, Madrid, 2013–14; sold to The Met]