Silver Crucified

This silver sculpture presents the dead Christ, fastened to the cross by four nails, although his feet are crossed. The purity cloth is gilded, made of brass, knotted on the right, and modernly restored to have hinges that facilitate its mobility. The cross is made of ebony veneered wood, with gilded bronze finials on the head and arms. All in perfect state of preservation. This piece is a cast of a model taken to Seville in 1597, from Rome, by the silversmith Franconio, with the design attributed to Michelangelo and the casting to Jacopo del Duca, and of which there are several examples in Spain, one of them in a private collection in Granada, beautifully polychromed, both identical to the one in the Royal Palace. / Extracted from: A.A.V.V.: Gómez-Moreno Institute (catalog). Granada, 1992, p. 173.