Spanish or Italian school; 17th century.

Spanish or Italian school; XVII century.
"Virgin and Child.
Carved wood, polychrome and gilded.
Presents restorations.
It has a base from a later period.
Measurements: 148 x 65 x 50 cm.
Mary stands, standing on a pedestal, holding the Child Jesus with one arm. Mary wears a long tunic and mantle whose arrangement generates an interesting play of folds, which adds volume and dynamism to the figure. The Child, on the other hand, is a remarkably naturalistic infant figure, with delicate and soft features, rounded cheeks and a spontaneous gesture. Jesus carries a golden sphere that represents the world. He is a Triumphant Child, Savior of the World, and symbolizes the idea of Jesus as man and savior, lord of all the Earth, which he redeems with his death and resurrection. It is an iconography that combines divine power and grace with the happy innocence and humble condition of God incarnate. The presence of the Virgin conveys the bond between Jesus and his mother, which allows Mary to act as an intermediary, as an advocate for the human race before Christ at the moment of the Last Judgment.
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 the deepest feelings that nested in it. With the economy of the State broken, the nobility in decline and the high clergy burdened with heavy taxes, it was the monasteries, the parishes and the confraternities of clerics and laymen who promoted its development, the works sometimes being financed by popular subscription. Sculpture was thus compelled to embody the prevailing ideals 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 would understand and identify with what was represented, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content to increase the fervor and devotion of the people. The religious subject is, therefore, the preferred theme of Spanish sculpture of this period, which in the first decades of the century began with a priority interest in capturing the natural, to progressively intensify throughout the century the expression of expressive values, which is achieved through the movement and variety of gestures, the use of light resources and the representation of moods and feelings.