Spanish school of the late 17th century – early 18th century. “Virgin and Child”. Carved and polychrome wood. Devotional image carved in wood in the round and polychrome, framed within the late Spanish Baroque. It is a sculpture of monumental conception, with large and monolithic figures, with volumes enhanced through the ample folds of Mary's tunic. The Virgin appears standing, holding the Child on her lap, in a naturalistic position, full of movement. Thus, we see how Mary, to compensate for the weight of the Child, leans her back backwards, while Jesus leans forwards in turn, thus compensating the composition. The Child appears raising his right hand in a sign of blessing, while the other hand rests on a sphere, a symbol of the universality of Christian doctrine and of Christ's redemptive act. Spanish Baroque sculpture is one of the most authentic and personal examples of our art, because its conception and its form of expression arose from the people and from the deepest feelings that nestled within them. With the State's economy in ruins, the nobility in decline and the high clergy burdened with heavy taxes, it was the monasteries, parishes and brotherhoods of clergy and lay people that promoted its development, the works being financed on occasion by popular subscription. Sculpture was thus forced to express the ideals that prevailed in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when the counter-reformist doctrine demanded from art a realistic language so that the faithful could understand and identify with what was represented, and an expression endowed with intense emotional content to increase the fervour and devotion of the people. Religious subject matter is, therefore, the preferred theme of Spanish sculpture in this period, which began in the first decades of the century with a priority interest in capturing nature, to progressively intensify throughout the century the embodiment of expressive values, which was achieved through movement and the variety of gestures, the use of light resources and the representation of moods and feelings.
· Size: 32x26x70 cms.
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