Workshop of Nicolás Francés, 'The Mass of Saint Gregory', mid-15th century

A tonsured monk in a rich golden cope kneels before an altar in a chapel. Behind him, a deacon in green holds a lighted taper. On the altar, viewed at an angle and from above, are various liturgical objects: a gold chalice with a small cover, two candlesticks, a text and an open book on a bookstand, presumably a missal. The altar is covered with a fine white cloth, with tassels along its edge. Down its front hangs a magnificent gold and red brocade panel.

Most remarkably, the half-length figure of Jesus Christ emerges from a stone sarcophagus on the altar itself. Blood pours from his wounds and from where the crown of thorns has pierced his skin. His eyes are open and he looks down at the monk. His hands rise to show the stigmata, the marks of the nails in his palms. Behind him stands the Cross on which he was crucified. A tablet at its head reads I.N.R.I. – an abbreviation of the Latin for ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’. These were the words that Pontius Pilate had ordered to be placed over Christ’s head during the crucifixion.

Christ is surrounded by the Instruments of the Passion, or the Arma Christi in Latin. They illustrate different moments and events in his torture and death (the Passion). The Denial of Peter is alluded to by the cock standing on the column. The Flagellation is shown through the column and the whip hanging from the Cross. The Carrying of the Cross is recalled by the sudarium, the towel with which Saint Veronica wiped Christ’s face on the way to Golgotha, leaving an imprint of his features. The hand holding a tuft of hair, although not mentioned in the Christian Bible, was understood as fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah’s suffering: ‘I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheek to those who pulled out the beard’ (Isaiah 50:6).

The ladder leaning against the Cross, the nails protruding from it, and the hammer used to drive them into his hands and feet are all widely found in depictions of the Arma Christi. On the right stands the lance that pierced his side. In the top left-hand corner are the dice that the soldiers used to gamble for Christ’s clothes. Beside them is the sponge soaked in vinegar, which was given to him to drink.

This scene was among the most popular devotional images in late medieval Europe, known as the Vision of Saint Gregory. The monk is the late sixth-century Pope Gregory I. His papal tiara sits to the left of the altar. According to the legend, the Pope was saying Mass in the church of San Gerusalemme in Rome. At the moment of consecration, one of the celebrants doubted that the bread and wine truly became Christ’s body and blood. Gregory prayed for a sign, and Christ appeared on the altar to prove this sacred truth.

While a version of this story was known from the eighth century, its popularity grew from the late fourteenth century, when a Byzantine mosaic of the suffering Christ became a tourist attraction at San Gerusalemme. This icon was the prototype for the Western image of the Man of Sorrows. Those who prayed before it received 14,000 years off their time in purgatory. Pope Urban VI extended this indulgence to apply to copies as well as the original.

This small painting was created for private devotion. Such images were popular in the fifteenth century, spreading across Europe as manuscript illuminations, prints and panels like this.