Artist: Vasco Fernandes (Grao Vasco)
Date: 1530
Size: 242 x 239 cm
Museum: Grão Vasco National Museum (Viseu, Portugal)
Technique: Wood
In the Calvary, Christ is crucified between the Good Thief and the Bad Thief, accompanied in his pain by the swooning Virgin, Mary Magdalene, St. John and a holy woman. To the crowd of guards and executioners are added the scenes of the transport of the ladder, on the left, and the hanging of Judas, on a miniature scale, on the right, accompanied by a little devil that is carrying his soul away. In the predella, the scenes alluding to Christ Before Pontius Pilate, the Descent from the Cross and Christ’s Descent into Limbo give the altarpiece the temporal and narrative dimension of the cycle of Christ’s Passion.The cross of Christ is placed more or less in the centre of the composition, in a frontal position and ground that is closer to the spectator, whereas those of the Good and the Bad Thief are positioned slightly further away from the observer, one more so than the other, in keeping with the painting’s diagonal line. This dynamic organisation of the composition is enhanced by the expressive contortion of the figure of the Bad Thief, which contradicts any idea of symmetry at the figurative level in the upper third of the composition and accentuates the dramatic tension throughout the right-hand side of the painting. The same thing happens with the organisation of the formal groups of people witnessing the act.The limits defined by the cross, as well as the staggering of the multitude of people in the painting from the bottom up, further assisted by the presence of the horses and the representation of the scene alluding to the division of Christ’s cloak, allow for different placements of the figures in this ground of the painting, representing a wall of faces and spears that cuts into the intensely dramatic light of the sky, barely making it possible to glimpse the distant city of Jerusalem on the left.Through the relationship between light and colour, in other words, through the vibrant effects of the light on the red, yellow and green, distributed in a rhythmic pattern through the figures in the foreground, the artist spatialises the form in a continuous way and models the volumes with his customary artistic sense. Dalila Rodrigues
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