Despite his origin, El Greco is the Spanish Counter-Reformation Mannerist painter par excellence, and one of the creators of several highly successful models, imitated by other artists practically until the 19th century.
His models spread, among other reasons, because of the value El Greco gave to his own works, reinterpreting some of them dozens of times.
The results obtained by infrared photography made it possible to note the firm drawing of the figure, with clearly defined spaces of transition between the tunic and the flesh tones of the neck and hands, in a way similar to that found in other works by El Greco. Very relevant were the images obtained with the digital microscope, which not only highlighted that his palette is consistent with that of the Cretan master, with powerful and brilliant pigments uncommon in 16th-century Spanish painting, but also the way in which they are applied, a good example being the thin layer of glaze with lead-tin yellow and silicates precisely to enhance the luminosity of the work.
The rest of the piece’s characteristics perfectly match the master’s practice, which leads us to propose the hypothesis that this small painting was the ricordo used in his workshop to produce the different versions of Cristo portacroce.