17th century Spanish school

Spanish school of the 17th century.
"Virgin and Child".
Carved and polychrome wood.
Measurements: 24 cm (height).

The Virgin standing with the Child in her arms is a theme that has its origin in the Gothic period, and comes directly from the Byzantine Odigitria. Its name means "She who shows the way", the divine way, and hence in Byzantium, and also in the West at first, she points to the Child with her right hand. With the advance of naturalism at the end of the Gothic and already in the Renaissance, this symbolism will be replaced by a more human relationship between mother and Child, and we will see representations in which the Virgin and Child, although not yet looking at each other, are represented as a mother holding her little son in her arms. On the other hand, at first, the representation of the Virgin standing with the Child in her arms was placed in the mullions, forming part of the architecture, like most Gothic sculpture. However, it must have enjoyed great success among the faithful, so that from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries they began to be made in small format, free-standing and in different materials. It will be then when they begin to be not Odigitrian Virgins, but more maternal representations. At first they were made mainly in France, and from there they were exported to the rest of Europe; the models would become classics, repeated over and over again. Already in the Baroque, as a result of the Counter-Reformation, this strong symbolic weight will be recovered, without forgetting, however, what was advanced in terms of naturalism.