“And they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.” Matthew 27: 28-30.

This is the moment in St Matthew that inspired a life-size sculpture in utile wood – donated for the purpose by carpenter Ino Attard (a grandson of the founder of Pascal’s Woodworks) – by renowned Michael Camilleri Cauchi and his son Adonai. Last year, the same artists sculpted a similar life-size wooden Christ tied to the Column, which was carried in the Good Friday procession organised by St George’s Basilica, in Victoria, during Holy Week.

This sculpture is known as Tal-Porpra (from porpora, a red colour, in antiquity extracted from the gland of a mollusc) because of the dark red velvet cloth, usually lined with gold edging, which is placed on Christ’s back and hands, and metaphorically represents a regal robe. Christ standing in agony – artistically executed with impressive realism – evokes pity and compassion; he had been flogged and is now being mocked as the “King of the Jews”. The crown made of thorns and the rod tied in the hands of the suffering Jesus Christ add to the regal metaphor for a crown and a sceptre to the “king”, presented to the people by Pontius Pilate with the proverbial Latin Ecce Homo (John 19: 5) – “Behold the Man”. The jar on a small column, behind, stands for the water container with which Pilate “washed his hands” of the case of Christ brought before him to be sentenced.

Unfortunately, the sculptors’ chisel strokes in the precious wood – utile is a relative of sapele wood and is sometimes sold as sipo or African mahogany – cannot be appreciated because the statue has been painted to conform with all the other sculptures representing different scenes of the Passion.

This is the third statue in wood for the Basilica. Together with the Christ tied to the Column, it complements the miraculous wooden Crucified Christ by Pietru Pawl Azzopardi (executed in 1848).

These, and the old papier-mâché statues representing different episodes in Jesus Christ’s last moments in life, between the Last Supper and the cruel Crucifixion, very beautifully dressed in colourful velvet clothing, will be borne on devout men’s shoulders, during the Good Friday procession organised by St George’s Basilica along the main streets of Victoria, accompanied by sacred pageantry and a band playing solemn music, this Friday. This procession is reputed to have been the first ever organised in Gozo. Today, as in Malta, several other parishes in Gozo hold similar processions with extraordinary pageantry, some even with the use of horses!

But this procession – in which my two younger brothers and I participated many times in different roles – remains the most nostalgic and religious Good Friday procession to my mind.

During this year’s procession, the new Tal-Porpra will be a special holy attraction.