A craving for truthfullness, however repellent, is a characteristic feature of Spanish art: the ideal and the conventional form no part of the genius of this race, which is totally devoid of aesthetic sense’ (Théophile Gautier, Voyages en Espagne, 1843). Gautier51²è¹Ý¶ù infamous dismissal was prompted not by the extraordinarily lifelike sculptures and paintings made famous by the National Gallery51²è¹Ý¶ù landmark Sacred made Real exhibition of 2009, but by a graphic fourteenth-century crucifixion in Burgos cathedral that became famous across Spain and Latin American, the Cristo de Burgos. In this paper I examine the origins of the Cristo de Burgos, comparing it with other miraculous and lifelike sculptures across the Iberian Peninsula in order to re-examine the status of affective images in late medieval Castile.