Spanish school; c. 1600.

Spanish School; c. 1600.
"Virgin of Mercy".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 110 x 92 cm; 118 x 98 cm (frame).
The painting shows a simple background, golden, thus realizing the universality of the message. In the center stands out the monumental figure of Mary. The Virgin appears dressed in a red tunic tight to the waist and a large mantle, open with her arms outstretched to shelter under it several saints who are kneeling at the foot of Mary.
Iconographically, the Virgin of Mercy is linked to the popularization of her devotion at the end of the Middle Ages, which led to an increase in her appearance in art, protecting the faithful under her mantle. However, its origin seems to be much earlier: the devotion is found in Russia as early as the 12th century, the "adoption under the mantle" was part of rituals in Ancient Rome, etc.
Spanish Baroque painting is one of the most authentic and personal examples of our art, because its conception and form of expression arose from the people and the deepest feelings that nestled 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. Painting was thus forced to capture the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when the Counter-Reformation 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 painting 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.