Spanish school; second half of the 17th century.

Spanish school; second half of the XVII century.
"Saint Rosalia of Palermo".
Carved and polychrome wood.
It presents faults in the carving and polychrome.
Measurements: 89 x 45 x 26 cm.
The devotional feeling of the Baroque Spain gave place to a proliferation of this type of sculptures starring saints and martyrs, who were the most earthly and at the same time divine model that the faithful could admire and to which they could equate as an example of a life dedicated to the faith. In this case it is a carving that represents a monumental Rosalia of Palermo. Its dimensions and volumetry define a sculpture of great rotundity, although it does not dispense with technical subtleties, such as the realistic carving of the folds that form the tunic when the belt is tightened or the waves of the hair that fall down the back and the front, in a completely naturalistic way, very typical of the baroque. It is worth mentioning the mastery of the author who carves a foot forward, which can be seen outside the tunic and opens the arms of the saint in a praying attitude, features that provide a greater three-dimensionality to the sculpture, thus breaking with a strict hieratism typical of previous eras.
She is considered a protector against infectious diseases, such as the plague, and is also invoked to seek her protection in difficult times. Rosalia lived in solitude, poverty and penance. According to her hagiography she performed miracles such as the extinction of the plague that devastated her native Sicily. Patroness of Palermo, she enjoys great devotion in Sicily. Saint Rosalia was an important subject in Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting, particularly in the sacre conversazioni (group images of saints flanking the Virgin Mary) of artists such as Riccardo Quartararo, Mario di Laurito, Vincenzo La Barbara and possibly Antonello da Messina. But it was the Flemish master Van Dyck (1599-1637), who was caught in Palermo during the plague of 1624, who produced the largest number of paintings of her. Saint Rosalia is usually depicted as a young woman with flowing blonde hair, wearing a Franciscan hood or a crown of flowers and leaning towards the city of Palermo to protect it from danger.