Dress carving of the dark Virgin, 19th century.

Dress carving of the dark Virgin, 19th century.
Carved and polychrome wood. Silk and fabric dress with golden thread belt. Metal border.
It shows wear and some lack of polychrome on the base.
Measurements: 110 x 38 x 51 cm.

Sculpture of typology "Cap i Pota" (head and feet) that responds to the iconography of the brown Virgin. Antonio Madroñero, author of the book "Cultura y Tradicón de las Vírgenes Negras" states in an interview for Religión en libertad "In the particular case of Spain there was an industrial integration with the techniques and commerce of Rome. Our sigilata pottery arrived there, coming from the area of what is now Linares, with the merchandise being brought down the Guadalquivir and from La Rioja, which was exported by transporting it down the Ebro. The luxury tableware of the Roman world was made of terra sigilata. Taking advantage of this technique, the first generation of small images of black virgins was manufactured. They used the technique of the sigilata to form with iron slag softened by heat the most delicate part of the figure, face, hands and breastplate. The rest of the figure, back and back, was made by applying, perhaps a little massively, the slag in a pasty state, which was applied with a spatula".
The figures to dress were often used in processions, in this case it is a figure destined for private devotion, given its small size. The visible parts are covered with a thin layer of stucco and polychrome, while the rest is covered by real clothes. They are images that were especially liked for their naturalism, since by wearing authentic clothes a greater degree of realism was achieved than with the simply carved ones, which often did not have enough quality to achieve that degree of naturalism, so sought after in religious art since the Baroque period.