Brotherhood of the Descent from the Cross, Lord of My Hope

Processional Floats

Author: Juan González Moreno
Date: 1952–1954

Iconography:
The float is composed of four life-size figures. Saint John and the Virgin Mary, standing beside the Cross from which the Shroud hangs, lower the lifeless body of Christ. Kneeling and supporting Christ’s feet is Mary Magdalene.

History

In 1952, the Brotherhood of the Holy Burial approached the Municipal Savings Bank of Burgos requesting a processional float for the Good Friday procession.

The Savings Bank accepted the request and began the necessary arrangements, contacting the Murcian sculptor Juan González Moreno, who was commissioned to create the float.

In early 1953, the sculptor sent a model of a sculptural group depicting the Descent from the Cross. In it, he sought to “focus the viewer’s attention on the heads of Christ and Mary. Saint John supports Christ, while Mary Magdalene remains prostrate at the Lord’s feet. The body of Christ is displayed in all its splendor as the center and axis of the group, completed by the Cross, the Shroud, and the Ladder.”

On April 1, 1954, the sculptor delivered the finished work, which was mounted on a chassis prepared in the workshops of Automovilismo de Burgos. That same year, due to difficulties preventing the Brotherhood from accompanying the float, ecclesiastical authorities were asked to allow seminarians to escort it, and the Burgos City Council was requested to provide Rural Guards for its custody.

In 1955, the Brotherhood of the Descent—composed mainly of employees of the Municipal Savings Bank of Burgos—participated for the first time in the procession accompanying the float.

At the end of 2006, Caja de Burgos transferred ownership of the float to the Holy Week Board. It processed the following year in the Holy Burial Procession, accompanied by parishioners of the Parish of Saint Joseph the Worker, where the sculptural group is housed while the new Brotherhood was in formation.