RELIEFS OF THE DESCENT OF THE CROSS AND THE FLAGELATION

HISTORY 

No bibliographical reference regarding the origins of these reliefs has been found. In 1923, Martínez Kleiser published a photograph in which two Stations of the Cross with Neo Gothic frames can be seen standing in their place; this indicates that these reliefs were therefore installed more recently.

Given that they occupy a very significant place, it would seem the reliefs were of considerable importance to the church in the past. They even possibly formed part of an earlier main altarpiece that existed before the one made by Juan de Anchieta, who might well have been given other works as partial compensation for his work. Mention is certainly made in the conditions of his contract drawn up in 1574 in the following way: "figures and remains from the afore-mentioned earlier altarpiece are to be given to the referred Maestros".

This intriguing hypothesis contradicts the iconography of the conserved reliefs that sometimes refers to a small relief dedicated to the Passion of Christ and not St. Pedro (please refer to the Typology subsection).