339. Christ with Bound Hands

In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Date	1950
Material	Plaster
Dimensions	25 x 6 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. (63.5 x 15.9 x 16.5 cm)
Description	Three casts of this figure were originally made. Additional reproductions of the cast were produced and sold at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center in Ames, Iowa in 1960.
Markings	n/a
Provenance / Location	1) ) Charlotte Petersen's gift to Fr. Bill Clark; Monsignor Dan Tarrant; Brother Joshua Turley, Saint Benedict, Oregon; Turley Family, Kansas City, Missouri. 2) Saint Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center, Ames, Iowa. 3) Charlotte Petersen; purchased by Reverend William Robert Merrill; CPAC, Gift of Reverend William Robert Merrill. UM99.299
Alternate Title(s)	Christ Before Pilate; Christ the Judge
Notes / Sources	Papers, SC, Box 5 f.16: exhibition at Mason City Public Library, June 19-July 19, 1958; Box 1 f.4, Merrill letter Oct. 3, 1964; Box 1 f.8. Iowa State Daily, Aug. 17, 1945; Box 4 f.1, August Bang to Petersen, April 5, 1954 "Lutheran Tidings has "Christ Before Pilate" on cover"; Box 12 f.4; Ames Daily Tribune, Sept. 29, 1950 listed as "Christ, the Judge"; Julegranen, 1947 listed as "Christ Before Pilate"; Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), July 7, 1968.

The painted plaster sculpture is an image of Christ with his hands in front, tied with a rope. He wears a wrap around his lower body and his chest is bare. In August of 1945, Petersen talked to a reporter for the Iowa State Daily Student about a sculpture for which he had already made a model. It was to be a new concept of Christ that would portray Him as a masculine, powerful figure with a stern expression who stood with his hands tied by a rope. The idea was a representation of Christ “as he would appear on the earth surveying our present day humanity [and] views the wartorn world.” Petersen further explained to the student reporter about the overlarge hands of the figure: “It is as if he holds an atomic bomb in each fist.”