Spanish school; second half of the 16th century.

Spanish school; second half of the sixteenth century.
"Virgin and Child.
Carved and polychrome wood.
It presents important faults.
Measurements: 37 x 21 x 14 cm.
The figure represents the image of the Virgin with the Nile in her arms. Mary is portrayed as a woman of rotund forms and round face framed in long hair covered by the golden mantle, symbolizing her condition of Virgin. The clothes give her volume, not without a certain movement that is generated through the folds of the fabrics, especially visible in the fold that the Virgin holds in her left hand. Leaning on her right arm we see her son, who has been represented in an innocent way with a dynamic and childlike posture. The back area of the sculpture is barely worked, indicating that it is a sculpture conceived to be seen only from the front.
Given the importance given to religious images in the Hispanic world, during the 17th and 18th centuries ambitious pictorial series and extensive iconographic programs were created for churches and convents, as well as printed prints, medals and reliquaries for private devotion. As a whole, regardless of their size or support, these images fulfilled the objective of sacralizing daily life beyond the altars.