Cross,

ca. 1640–50

With its cross-shaped form and depiction of Christ on a roughly hewn wooden cross, this panel resists categorization as either a painting or a sculpture. The cross on which Christ is crucified is rendered as an almost sculptural object; set against a black background, it appears to exist in three dimensions.

This panel is one of approximately fifteen crosses attributed to María Josefa Sánchez, an artist active in central Spain in the 1640s. Women rarely worked as professional artists in seventeenth-century Spain, and little is known about Sánchez. Her entire production consists of painted wooden crosses, which were used as vehicles for prayer in monasteries, convents, and other private devotional contexts.