Spanish school of the XIX century. Follower of GIOVANNI BATISTA SALVI "IL SASSOFERRATO" (Sassoferrato, 1609 - Rome, 1685).
"Mater Dolorosa".
Oil on canvas.
It has Repainting and a hole in the canvas.
Period frame with faults.
Measurements: 76 x 55 cm; 100 x 78 cm (frame).

Bust of Mary cut out and highlighted on a very dark background thanks to a powerful spotlight that falls on her face and on her mantle, following the baroque line known as caravaggista. However, the features of the Virgin, the modeling of the magnificent mantle are more reminiscent of examples of the Bolognese school, noted for its classicism and its differences compared to the more tenebrist school of the pictorial baroque of 17th century Italy.
The piece follows the iconographic mode established by the artist Giovanni Battista Salvi, better known as "Il Sassoferrato", an Italian Baroque painter appreciated, above all, for the creation of devotional images in which he united the Bolognese classicist current and the tenebrism of the Caravaggist tradition, with a great variety of models and much diffusion, which often makes it difficult to attribute works to him with certainty. He began his training at the hand of his father, Tarquinio Salvi, extending it with Domenichino. He settled permanently in Rome, soon achieving a certain success for his gentle painting, allowing him to establish in the city an important workshop that would repeat the schemes and style of the master. His work is preserved in important institutions such as the National Gallery in London, the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the Barberini Palace in Rome, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, etc.