17th century Italian or Spanish school

Italian or Spanish school of the XVII century.
"Pieta with St. John the Evangelist and St. Francis of Assisi".
Oil on canvas.
In need of restoration.
Measurements: 176 x 139 cm; 226 x 179 cm (frame).

Work belonging to the scope of the devotional baroque of the seventeenth century, representing a Pieta accompanied by St. John the Evangelist and St. Francis of Assisi. The composition, of contained dramatism and spiritual density, focuses the attention on the Virgin Mary, who, wrapped in her traditional blue mantle and red tunic, raises her eyes to heaven in an attitude of supplication while holding against her chest the inert body of Christ recently descended from the cross.

The Redeemer, half-naked and covered only by the cloth of purity, rests seated on the Holy Sepulcher, from which the white shroud stretched out beneath his body. His drooping head, closed eyes and half-open lips emphasize the languor of death, in contrast with the emotional intensity of the rest of the figures.

On the right, St. Francis of Assisi, depicted in Franciscan habit, holds an open book in his lap and some fleurs-de-lis, attributes that allude to both his devotion and his spiritual purity; his absorbed gaze expresses mystical rapture before the mystery of the Passion. His physiognomy is youthful and idealized.

In a later plane, somewhat elevated, we can distinguish another male saint with a gray beard, whom we identify as St. John the Evangelist, who holds his right hand to his chest in a gesture of contemplative fervor. He participates in the pathos of the scene with a naturalistic treatment of the face and the folds of his garment.

The light models the bodies with delicate chiaroscuro, highlighting the anatomy of Christ and the idealization of the faces of Mary and Francis, in contrast to the more realistic description of the Evangelist. The landscape background, barely sketched, serves as an atmospheric frame to the scene centered on the monumentality of the figures, which occupy most of the pictorial space.

Due to its stylistic characteristics (closed composition, emotional accent, and use of light as a spiritualizing agent) the work could be placed in the orbit of Italian or Spanish-Napolitan Baroque painting, with possible echoes of Guido Reni, Ribera or Zurbarán, artists whose production combines mystical exaltation with a sober compositional theatricality.