Three-quarter-length Figure of Christ with His Hands Bound

Author: Surya Stemerding

This unpublished chalk study was considered to be an anonymous drawing, a classification that has continued until now. Christ is shown standing, dressed in a long robe, with his hands tied in front of him and his eyes downcast. Although easily misinterpreted as a study for an Ecce Homo composition, in such scenes Christ is usually depicted with a bare chest; instead, this drawing depicts a moment just after his arrest.

The attribution to Federico Zuccaro, first presented here, is based primarily on stylistic grounds. An example are the shadows defined by strong, parallel hatchings that continue over the loosely drawn outlines of the figure’s hair and draperies. It is supported by the drawing’s relationship to Federico’s painting Christ in Captivity between Two Armed Men (1571), still visible in its original location next to the entrance of the Cappella Ruiz in the Santa Caterina dei Funari in Rome.^[1] The decorations in the chapel were executed by Girolamo Muziano (1532-1592), but the four paintings on the pilasters next to the entrance were commissioned from Federico Zuccaro by Don Ferrante Ruiz (d. 1572), a Spanish chaplain in Rome.^[2] The upper two paintings show the evangelists Mark and Luke, and the lower ones depict two scenes from the Passion. They are signed and dated ANNO DOMINI M.D.L.X.X.I. / FEDERICVS ZUCCARVS FACIEBAT.

Our drawing is very likely a preparatory study for the figure of Christ, although the sheet was apparently trimmed and presumably originally showed him in full length, as he appears in the painting.^[3] However, dissatisfied, it seems, with the expressiveness of the figure, Federico changed small details to make it more solemn in the painting, more befitting a grave moment in the Passion. Where the study shows Christ’s head in three-quarter profile, the painting depicts him en face, though still with the same tilted angle. Furthermore, the position of the fingers is changed in the painting, the sleeves are slightly shorter, and the drapery of the robe has a more rigid, vertical quality. The loose fold that falls diagonally from Christ’s right arm in the drawing was omitted altogether, but the distinctive rounded neckline of Christ’s robe remains unchanged. The artist’s careful attention to the draperies and to the complex pose of the bound hands implies that these were his primary focus in this study. Even so, the facial expression reveals deep emotion, effortlessly rendered in hastily sketched lines.