Spanish school of the first half of the 16th century.

Spanish school of the first half of the 16th century.
"Pietà".
Wood carving, remains of polychrome.
It has some flaws and xylophages. Restorations in the fingers.
Measurements: 83 x 42 x 28 cm.

Devotional sculpture in carved wood, representing the theme of the Pietà. Conceived for a frontal vision, it is worked as a half-bulk. Following the canonical tradition of this iconographic typology, the lifeless body of Christ rests on the lap of the Virgin. In the present carving, the Virgin remains standing, and slightly inclines her head to contemplate her son with tenderness, holding his head with one hand and one arm with the other. The posture lacks a hint of mannerism. On the contrary, they compose an extremely human image, withdrawn in a contained pain. The classical sense of beauty and harmony is balanced with a desire to show a contained pain, in which the virgin withdraws. The torso of Christ, with the ribs revealing themselves under the thin skin, expresses with verism the morbidity of a lifeless and yet beautiful body. The veil, the tunic and the wide Marian mantle contrast with the nudity of the dead Christ.

The Pieta is a very repeated theme in the history of art, especially from the Renaissance onwards. From this theme will derive the representations of the Dolorosa, in which only the Virgin appears. The iconography of the Pietà arises from a gradual evolution of five centuries and, according to Panofsky, derives from the theme of the Byzantine Threnos, the lamentation of the Virgin over the dead body of Jesus, as well as from the Virgin of Humility. The first artists to see the possibilities of this theme were German sculptors, the first example being found in the city of Coburg, a piece from around 1320. With the passage of time the iconography will spread throughout Europe, and already in the seventeenth century, after the Counter-Reformation, it would become one of the most important themes of devotional painting.