"El Cristo de la Caída" by Mariano Benlliure will be the 6th Station


Madrid, October 29, 2010.- The “Cristo de la Caída” from Úbeda will participate in the Stations of the Cross that will be celebrated during World Youth Day. The piece is a work of the sculptor, Mariano Benlliure, one of the most distinguished contemporary sculptors for his religious and civil work.

The representative of the Úbeda Brotherhood, Juan Antonio Lindes Laguna, said that the Holy Week images “make you live more profoundly the Way of the Cross, they are like a living catechesis, that is why they were created.”

Benlliure was asked to do the “Cristo de la Caída” to subsitute a previous piece (from the 17th century) that had diappeared during the Spanish Civil War. The artist finally finished the work in 1942. Francisco José Portela, Art History Professor at the Complutense University in Madrid, has emphasized “the successful anatomical study” of a “fugure of Christ carrying the cross, half-naked, and in an attitude of balance.”

The Úbeda Brotherhood wants to involve the 18 brotherhoods of the city in the preparations for WYD. WIt is a historic event for us and for the city,” the representative for the Brotherhood mentioned.

The young people of the Brotherhood are already excited as they prepare the participation that their city will have in WYD. The spokesperson for the Youth of the Brotherhood, José Luis Latorre, considers that the choice of the image is not only “a privilege,” but that it happens “just in time to encourage the youth of Úbeda to go to WYD.”

The image forms part of the Sixth Station of the WYD Stations of the Cross. It will take the place of the sculpture by Nicolás Fumo that will not be able to take part in the event due to technical reasons related to the conservation status of the work.


The Stations of the Cross: