Lowering from the cross

The sculptor used religion as a subject matter throughout his artistic career, both in painting and in sculpture, and in particular in the Passion of Jesus Christ Series. This work refers to one of the most painful episodes in the life of the Mother of God, when she receives in her arms the body of her dead son, unnailed from the cross. A tough, intense and emotional scene. The artist depicted this dynamic gesture of Mary in dynamic and uncommon manner, since it is the sequence prior to the static scene that we are more accustomed to seeing in the Our Lady of Sorrows. The power of the gesture depicts, even more intensely, the anguish and oppression of the scene. Lluís M. Saumells Panadés (1915-1999) He held his first exhibition in Tarragona, in 1934, at the Ateneu Tarraconense, and in 1945 moved to Paris with a scholarship from the French government. On his return from France, in 1949, he was appointed the Director of the Studio-School of Art of the Diputació of Tarragona, the city where he would make his home, except for occasional stays in Palma. The artist, using a defined volume presents a minimum of details, creating his own typology with which he would work constantly, with minor variations: expressionist figures of hands with long and thin fingers and angular faces. The same characteristics are also applied to his pictorial and paper production. His commitment to art would result in him becoming a true promoter of culture in the city. Text by Enric Baixeras