Dress Virgin of the 18th century.
Modelled wax. Cloth vestments.
Eighteenth century frame in carved and gilded wood.
Measurements: 80 cm (total with crown); 117 x 88 x 17 cm (frame).
Dress images are figures worked in detail only on the face and hands, on a structure of wood carved (in this case wax) to a greater or lesser extent. These processional images were cheaper than fully carved ones, and were therefore common throughout Spain. The visible parts are covered with a thin layer of stucco and polychromed, while the rest is covered with real clothes. These images were particularly appreciated for their naturalism, as the fact that they were dressed in real clothes gave them a greater degree of realism than those that were simply carved, which were often not of sufficient quality to achieve the degree of naturalism so sought after in religious art from the Baroque period onwards. Some of these "cap i pota", another name for this type of figure, were made articulated, so that their position could be changed and they could be dressed more easily.