Dress carving or cap-i-pota of the Immaculate Conception, XIX century.

Dress carving or cap-i-pota of the Immaculate Conception, XIX century.
Carved and polychrome wood. Silk dress with gold thread embroidery.
Silver metal border.
It shows wear, dirt. Restorations on the neck.
It is missing an earring.
Measurements: 98 x 46 x 30 cm.

Sculpture of typology "Cap i Pota" (head and feet) that responds to the iconography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. The theme of the Conception is joined to that of the Assumption, alluding to the Glory of Mary. The Virgin rests her feet on the orb, in which the head of a dragon (symbol of evil), which Mary defeats, appears from the clouds. This same model, but with variations, was applied repeatedly in Spanish painting and devotional sculpture since the Baroque period.
The "cap i pota" images are figures worked in detail only on the face and hands, on a wooden structure carved to a greater or lesser extent. Although figures for dress were often used in processions, in this case it is a figure intended for private devotion, given its small size. The visible parts are covered with a thin layer of stucco and polychromed, 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.