73 The sculpture of the crucified Christ The sculpture of the crucified Christ The crucifix occupies the central niche of the Holy Cross retable.58 The figure of the crucified Christ is attached to the cross, patibulum and antenna of the cross are made of simple wooden rectangular beams. Close to the top of the cross is a carved wooden titulus. Christ is portrayed as drained and weary, a way that still reflects the late medieval tradition of depicting Christ’s passion. The elements of the pathos of the gothic style are particularly obvious in the modelling of the Christ’s head. As reported above, the retable was made in accordance the last will of Blaž Alegretto from 1567 to house the crucifix. Additional research has revealed the crucifix as being imported from Mexico and belonging to the group of light-weight crucifixes made of maize stalks, a technique which was developed in the early years of Christianisation of the colonised “New Spain”, probably based on an indigene working technique.59 Construction and making of the corpus Computer tomography (CT) provided an insight into the unique hollow construction of the sculpture, the composition and materials (Fig. 110 -117). It can be assumed that a particular type of positive mould (possibly of gypsum or clay) existed, the shape of which corresponded to the observed cavity within the sculpture (torso and legs). First, this mould must have been covered with a layer of rigid thick wet paper to form the inner shell of the body. When dry, the paper had to be cut “along the equator” so that the mould could be removed. Suggesting that there might have been other sculptures made on that mould, it was probably saved for the next sculpture. The seamlike joint registered by endoscopy inside the hollow chest explains how the two halves of the paper “shell” were subsequently joined again (Fig. 112, 113). Round pieces of wood (small stems or branches) were introduced to this paper “shell” to those points of the construction where the extremities were to be attached, i.e. at the far ends of the legs and arms, another one was used to join the head with the body (Fig. 114). The arms were made separately. A piece of wood was found at the ends of
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