Nicolás Enríquez excelled in the creation of paintings on copper. Copper was considered a precious material in part because of the great brilliance that it lent to paint, which gave the works the appearance of finely crafted cloisonné. This devotional image of the Crucifixion follows the tradition of the Sevillian artists Sebastián de Arteaga (1610–1652) and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682), who chose to render the crucified Christ with three nails. In this they departed from the more canonical depictions of Christ nailed to the cross with four nails, as prescribed by the Sevillian painter Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644) in his treatise Arte de la pintura (1649).