Le Christ en croix

Velázquez painted this Crucifixion around 1632 for a convent of Benedictine nuns in Madrid, the convent of San Plácido, which is why it is sometimes called the Christ of San Plácido. He followed the rules his old teacher Francisco Pacheco had laid down for how a crucified Christ should look: four nails rather than three, the two feet set side by side on a small wooden block instead of crossed under one spike. Against a plain dark ground the pale body stands almost serene, the head fallen forward after death. A curtain of hair hangs down over one side of the face, and Velázquez scratched into the wet paint with the tip of his brush to catch the loose strands.