Italian Good Friday Procession Art

It is traditional in Spain, Italy and other Catholic countries to stage elaborate religious procession on Good Friday and Easter.  While in Erice, a village on the Western tip of Sicily, I found a Museum of church objects that had a series of statue used to commemorate the Passion story of Jesus on Good Friday.

These large, almost life-sized scenes were carried in procession through the town.  I actually found the scenes to be too violent and grotesque.  If the works were meant to horrify the faithful and drive them to repentance, then they probably worked!  I only took a few pictures and honestly didn’t spend too long with those incredibly scary procession floats.

Garden of Gethsemane Statue, probably the least frightening component of the Passion Procession collection on display in Erice, Italy