Dress carving or Catalan cap-i-pota, 19th century.

Dress carving or Catalan cap-i-pota, 19th century.
"Virgin of Mercy.
Carved wood with original polychrome. Crown of silver metal. Glass eyes. Original dress of embroidered thread.
The dress presents humidities. Generalized wear, dirt and some lack of polychrome on the wood.
Measurements: 95 x 35 x 20 cm.

Sculpture of typology "Cap i Pota" (head and feet) that responds to the Marian iconography of the Virgin of Mercy, defined by the scapular. The Virgin of Mercy is the patron saint of the captives, not only physical, but also spiritually captives, and of all those who have been marginalized by society. Her devotion has its origin in Catalonia. The Order of Mercy was founded around her, initiated by Saint Peter Nolasco at the beginning of the 13th century. It was precisely the Mercedarian monks who spread her cult throughout Spain, France and Italy from that date onwards. The iconography for the representations of the Virgin of Mercy acquires its definitive form in the 16th century, which in the Baroque period drifts towards more dynamic representations, with breaks of glory.
The "cap i pota" images are figures worked in detail only on the face and hands, on a wooden structure carved to a greater or lesser extent. Although the figures for dress were often used in processions, in this case it is a figure intended for private devotion, given its small size. The visible parts are covered with a thin layer of stucco and polychromed, while the rest is covered by real clothes. They are images that were especially liked for their naturalism, since by wearing authentic clothes a greater degree of realism was achieved than with the simply carved ones, which often did not have enough quality to achieve that degree of naturalism, so sought after in religious art since the Baroque period.