Romanesque school; Spain, 12th century.

Romanesque school; Spain, 12th century.
"Virgin".
Carved and polychrome wood.
Presents restorations.
It has damages caused by xylophagous.
Measurements: 77 x 23 x 20 cm.
Romanesque sculpture of devotional character that still conserves part of its polychromy. The carving presents a strict verticality and a great hieratism, typical of the historical period in which it was made. The back of the piece has not been worked, so it is likely that the piece was part of the ornamental decoration of an architectural ensemble. The carving stands out for the simplicity of the forms, the rigid technique of straight lines and the somewhat naive conception of the face, characteristics that bring us closer to the Romanesque style, whose main purpose was based on transmitting the message or the word, thus becoming a symbol, above the superfluous details. The carving stands static, with his hands in front, and his oversized face, which highlights the great expressiveness that transmits the face, through the large almond-shaped eyes, the straight nose, and arched eyebrows.
Romanesque sculpture pursues mainly didactic purposes, and its images are conceived as a visual narrative, which must always be clearly legible. At this time, prior to the search for naturalism that would emerge during the Gothic period, the language is purely conceptual, and works on the basis of symbols and conventions accepted by all. In this sense, the anatomy is synthetic, representative rather than a reflection of the natural, as is the treatment of the face.