Spanish school. Late Gothic, 15th century.

Spanish school. Late Gothic, 15th century.
"Pietà.
Polychrome wood carving.
Frontal work (niche for niche on the back).
Presents faults, restorations and Repainting.
Measurements: 105 x 55 x 55 cm.

Important Spanish carving belonging to the late Gothic. It responds to the iconography of the Pietà, that is, the seated Virgin welcomes on her lap the dead Christ, once He has descended from the cross. In a theme of deep dramatism, intensity that in this piece is captured in the pathos printed on both faces (the mother with half-closed eyelids and arched eyebrows, the son with his mouth half-open and showing the upper row of teeth), as well as in the lifeless body of Jesus, whose left arm is taken by the loving hand of Mary. With her other hand she holds Christ's head, the naked body (except for the purity cloth) sliding down to touch the ground with the tips of her toes. The draperies of the Marian mantle are skillfully draped with deep, broken folds that fall to the ground in zigzagging meanders. In this piece, characteristic elements of the Renaissance, such as naturalism and the harmony of the anatomical proportions, can already be glimpsed.

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 became one of the most important themes of devotional painting.