Circle of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Circle of BARTOLOME ESTEBAN MURILLO (Seville, 1617 - 1682).
"Dolorosa".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 60 x 50 cm; 68 x 57 cm (frame).
This painting is inspired by the work done by Murillo between 1660 and 1670, currently preserved in the Prado Museum. The original is a piece of great beauty, but also pathetic, typical of the Baroque period. However, the dramatic character is attenuated here with a more uniform treatment of the illumination. Likewise, the rigorous drawing tells us of a certain influence of neoclassicism. In this work Mary is represented as the Virgin of Sorrows and Solitude, a theme very much to the taste of popular devotion, which will enjoy a great diffusion especially in the works destined for chapels and private altars. The theme is usually represented as we see here, with the Virgin alone in the foreground, in a dark and undefined environment, of an undoubtedly dramatic character. Although it is a compositional formula that we will see very developed in the naturalistic baroque, here it still responds to a purely iconographic sense, and in fact derives from Flemish models, of great weight in the Spanish school even in the 16th century. On the other hand, the way of composing the image presents a large, monumental figure.
The devotion to the sorrows of the Virgin has its roots in medieval times, and was especially spread by the Servite order, founded in 1233. There are many and varied iconographic representations that have as central theme the Virgin Mary in her Sorrowful aspect, being the first of them in which she appears next to the Child Jesus, who sleeps oblivious to the future of suffering that awaits him. In these works is usually present the cross, the main symbol of the Passion, embraced even by the Child, while Mary observes him with a pathetic expression. Another aspect is the one that is part of the Pietà, similar to the previous one, although her Son is here dead, not asleep, depicted as an adult and after his crucifixion. In the oldest representations of this theme, the body of Christ appears disproportionately small, as a symbol of the memory that the mother has of her Son's childhood, when she contemplated him asleep on her lap.