Diego Velasquez's Christ Crucified
The name Diego Velasquez (1599–1660), painter to the Spanish court, usually calls to mind portraits, both formal and informal, of the royals and their courtiers, theatrical mythological scenes, genre scenes of Spanish life, and only a smattering of rather operatic, Baroque religious subjects. Therefore this stark and uncompromising Christ Crucified is rather a surprise from Velasquez, or for that matter, from anyone. Here there is no landscape, no other people, no action or expression of emotion, just empty space, blackness, and a Christ, up close and already dead. How to account for such a startling image?
Sometimes the circumstances of a painting's origins offer clues, but unfortunately, there is little to be found here. It is conjectured that Jerónimo de Villanueva, a highly placed official at court and the founder of the Convent of San Plácido in Madrid, may have commissioned it for the Benedictines there. In 1630, Villanueva had come under scrutiny by the Inquisition for alleged irregularities at the convent. At the same time, an incident involving the desecration of a sculpted crucifix in Madrid prompted an outpouring of pious devotions to Christ crucified, of which this might be one.
The painting would have served a double purpose: as an enhancement of the convent and as a public statement of orthodoxy and devotion on the part of Villanueva and the Benedictines. The painting is rather like a statue, perhaps like the one that was disfigured. (The careful carpentry of the cross, too, might be a reference to the Benedictines' emphasis on work.) Inquiries into the convent's activities were suspended.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Mary Elizabeth Podles is the retired curator of Renaissance and Baroque art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She and her husband Leon, a Touchstone senior editor, have six children and live in Baltimore, Maryland.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on art from the online archives
32.4—July/August 2019
on Single-Mindedness in Durer's Ritter, Tod, und Teufel by Anthony Costello
33.2—March/April 2020
An Architectural Sign of Mere Christianity by Michael Ward
more from the online archives
32.1—January/February 2019
Divine Love & the Love of Man & Woman Surpass Mere Consent by Anthony Esolen
31.6—November/December 2018
The Slow Vindication of Leon Podles by S. M. Hutchens
24.6—Nov/Dec 2011
on the Tyranny of Modern Freedom versus the Freedom of Jesus by Gillis J. Harp
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
