School of BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN MURILLO Murillo (Seville, 1617 - Cadiz, 1682).
"Dolorosa".
Oil on canvas. Re-framed.
It has a 20th century frame following ancient models.
Measurements: 65 x 52,5 cm; 85,5 x 73,5 cm (frame).
This painting is inspired by the work carried out by Murillo between 1660 and 1670, currently kept in the Prado Museum. The original is a work of great beauty, but also pathetic, typical of the Baroque period. However, the dramatic character is attenuated here by a more uniform treatment of the lighting. The rigorous drawing also suggests a certain influence of neoclassicism. This work depicts Mary as the Virgin of Sorrows and Solitude, a theme very much to the taste of popular devotion, which would become widespread, especially in works intended for chapels and private altars. The subject is usually depicted as we see here, with the Virgin alone in the foreground, in a dark, undefined setting of an undoubtedly dramatic nature. Although this is a compositional formula that we will see very much developed in the naturalist Baroque, here it still responds to a purely iconographic sense, and in fact derives from Flemish models, which were still very important in the Spanish school in the 16th century. On the other hand, the way the image is composed presents a large, monumental figure.
Devotion to the Sorrows of the Virgin has its roots in medieval times, and was especially widespread among the Servite Order, founded in 1233. There are many and varied iconographic representations whose central theme is the Virgin Mary in her Sorrowful aspect, the first of these being those in which she appears next to the Child Jesus, who sleeps oblivious to the future suffering that awaits him. The cross, the main symbol of the Passion, is usually present in these works, even embraced by the Child, while Mary looks on with a pathetic expression. Another aspect is that which forms part of the Pietà, similar to the previous one although her Son is here dead, not asleep, depicted as an adult and after his crucifixion. In the oldest representations of this theme, Christ's body appears disproportionately small, as a symbol of the mother's memory of her Son's childhood, when she contemplated him asleep on her lap.