Spanish school (XVIII), Workshop of - Cristo crucificado

Identifiable features:
• Dead or dying Christ, head tilted, with the four wounds and a trail of blood on the right side painted almost like a schematic line
• White loincloth (purity cloth) tied at the hip, with a very characteristic “shell” fold, and a loose end fluttering to the left
• Dark background, practically no landscape or accessories, except a star or reddish glow on the left (possible remnant of a filacteria, angel, or Marian symbol cut out) and a reddish area below on the right, perhaps a curtain
• Remnants of an upper cartouche, probably with the INRI, now greatly eroded
• Relatively flat anatomy, with a torso treatment that shows some stiffness and linearity in the drawing of the ribs and abdomen

School orientation:
• The type of loincloth with that rolled and voluminous fold is very typical of Spanish painting (and also of Flemish-Spanishate workshops) of the 16th-17th centuries, and it recurs in crucified figures of Zurbarán-like tradition or even earlier, in roots of Mannerism
• The sobriety of the composition (no thieves, no Virgin or St. John, only Christ alone on the cross) suggests that it is a devotional painting, probably for private or convent cell oratory, rather than a piece for a large altarpiece
• The somewhat schematic anatomy, with the ribs marked in a nearly decorative way and the legs elongated and straight, could point to a second-rank painter from a Castilian or Andalusian workshop, or to a work transitioning between late Mannerism and early Baroque naturalism (approx. 1580-1650)
• The format (109x89 cm, almost square) and the gilded frame with a simple molding, also antique in appearance though deteriorated, are coherent with that chronology

Attributed to “Spanish school, circle or followers of tenebrist naturalism, 17th century, with reminiscences of Mannerism in the drawing.” There is no signature or legible inscription in the photos that would allow identifying the author.