Cell crosses (cruces de celda) are small painted or sculpted crucifixes commonly used in private devotional practice in monasteries, convents, and private oratories. They were hugely popular in Spain and Latin America. Deeply rooted in Spain’s mystic tradition, this representation of the crucified Christ conforms to Tridentine exhortations that visual excess should be stripped away so as to foster a heightened sense of spiritual connection. María Josefa Sánchez’s cross is devoid of artistic flourishes; the viewer is invited to confront the powerful subject matter without the distraction of secondary details, besides the presence of a skull at the foot of the cross beneath Christ’s feet.

The crucified figure is painted in a mannerist style, that reflects the artist´s knowledge of, and interest in, other representations of the theme that were disseminated throughout Spain through prints, notably those of Luis Tristán. María Josefa’s depiction of a cross made of an unfinished tree trunk rather than prepared, smoothly planed wood may relate to a similar feature seen in Luis Tristán’s Crucifixion of ca. 1613 in the Museo del Prado. However, an Italian painter, Angelo Nardi (1584–1665), also working in Spain, used a very similar naturally hewn tree trunk in his crucifixion now in the Bowes Museum. The motif of a cross within a cross may be seen as early as a Crucifixion by Giunta Pisano, ca.1250, in the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna and also in that of Paolo Veneziano, ca.1350, in the church of San Giacomo Dall’ Orio in Venice. It is not a common representation but in Spain it was taken up in the XVII century by Murillo. The fashion for naturally hewn tree trunks can also be seen in French art of the first half of the XVII century and was also adopted in Germany in the late Medieval period. In her catalogue entry for the cell cross by Sánchez that was recently acquired by the Meadows Museum, Amanda Dotseth draws stylistic comparisons between Sánchez and a much earlier, mannerist painter, Luis de Morales whose work was widely disseminated through prints, but the present cell cross also owes much to the realism of Zurbarán, a slightly earlier artist than Sánchez.