Italian school of the XVIII century.

Italian school of the XVIII century.
It follows models of CARLO DOLCI (Florence, 1616 - 1686).
"Dolorosa".
Oil on copper.
Measurements 39 x 30 cm; 45 x 37 cm (frame).

This work follows in the wake of Carlo Dolci in that the treatment of the image is very delicate, with a use of slanted light and a soft chiaroscuro that models the facial oval with great subtlety. Mary tilts her face in a humble gesture, squinting her eyelids. The Virgin adopts a classical profile posture, a taste that began to be renewed in the Italian Peninsula during the 15th century and that would characterize the Renaissance and the subsequent Baroque period. The image stands out for the pathos of her gestures, a common feature in Carlo Dolci's painting.

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 the central theme of the Virgin Mary in her Sorrowful aspect, a theme that Dolci took up almost four centuries later.

The formal and stylistic characteristics of the work are those of the unmistakable Florentine painter Carlo Dolci, who, according to critics, was the most outstanding Baroque painter in Florence in the 17th century. In addition to the paintings destined to decorate the altars of churches, Dolci popularized compositions with half-length images of the Virgin, Mary Magdalene, saints and other sacred figures, with a polished and detailed technique, which were well received by the late Baroque clientele. Among his first works signed as an independent artist are portraits, a genre that the painter worked on throughout his career and for which he was particularly renowned. He forged his style by copying the works of the great masters of the 15th and 16th centuries, including Fra Angelico, Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo and Correggio. He was also in contact with the Medici collection, which had a great influence on his work of the Dutch painters of his time, such as Willem van der Aelst. Throughout his career and after his death he had numerous disciples, among them Agnese Dolci, his daughter, who followed the family tradition and made numerous copies of Carlo Dolci's paintings.