Catalan dress carving or cap-i-pota, 19th century.

Dress carving or Catalan cap-i-pota, 19th century.
"Virgin Dolorosa".
Carved and polychrome wood. Glass eyes. Dress and ornaments of fabric and silk. With mantilla and shawl. Crown and swords of the seven sorrows in silver metal.
It shows wear and dirt.
Measurements: 76 x 30 x 20 cm.

Sculpture of typology "Cap i Pota" (head and feet) that responds to the iconography of the Virgin of the Sorrows or of the seven Sorrows, a set of events of the life of the Virgin Mary that are a popular invocation and are frequently collected in the art. 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 whose central theme is the Virgin Mary in her Sorrowful aspect, the most important being the theme of the Virgin of Sorrows and Solitude, in which the panel presented here is framed. In this iconography Mary is alone, sometimes with her heart pierced by swords symbolizing the pains she suffered, generally seven: the prophecy of Simeon, the flight into Egypt, Jesus lost at the age of twelve, the meeting of Mary and Jesus on Calvary, the Crucifixion, the descent from the cross and the burial of Jesus. In good condition for its age. In the sacred heart of the Virgin, made in silver, one of the daggers has been lost.
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 the 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.