77 The sculpture of the crucified Christ The round pieces of wood at the end of the legs and arms were extended with further pieces of wood to carve hands and feet. The structure of the hands is made of a small board onto which separately cut fingers and the thumb were attached. The paper “shell” and attached wooden elements were then covered with several layers of maize stems. These were arranged as evenly as possible and glued together to form the necessary volume of the body. When the desired maize volume was obtained, it was possible to chisel and possibly rasp out the anatomical details of the body in this soft material. Emerging gaps between the maize stems were filled with a filling material based on grinded maize with a binding medium. This material was subsequently used for the fine modelling of the face, beard and hair. When the required shape was obtained, the whole surface of the sculpture was covered with another layer of thick paper. In some areas, the surface of this paper reveals the structure of manufactured laid paper (french: Vergé paper; german: Bütten, paper with chain lines and wire lines)(Fig. 120, 121). Cotton fibers (gossypium herbaceum) or a similar species of the same genus of the family (malvaceae) were identified as the main body of the paper pulp. This paper cover was not added in areas of detailed surface like hair, beard, fingers, etc. The thorncrown is made of plant fibres (genista) twisted to form a twostrand rope, which is assembled in a four-strands plait. The different strands are fixed to each other with pieces of thin rope and covered with a long fibre paper. Wooden thorns point through the vegetal rope. A preparation was applied to the paper surface in two layers and smoothed. Finally, the polychromy had been added.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5NTQ=