Dress carving or cap-i-pota of the Virgin of Carmen, XIX century.

Dress carving or cap-i-pota of the Virgin of Carmen, XIX century.
Painted wood carving.
Head and hands in painted ceramic.
Period dress.
Measurements: 58 cm (height); 76 cm (overall height).

Sculpture of typology "Cap i Pota" (head and feet) that responds to the iconography of the Virgin of Carmen with Baby Jesus. We recognize the Virgin of Carmen by the scapular. Its name derives from the sacredness of Mount Carmel, in Israel. According to tradition, during the celebration of Pentecost some of the faithful who were on that mountain were converted to Catholicism after the apparition of the Virgin. In that place they founded a temple in honor to Mary, origin of the congregation of the Brothers of Saint Mary of Mount Carmel, which passed to Europe in the 13th century after their persecution in the Holy Land.

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 and polychromed, while the rest is covered by real clothes. On other occasions, in more valuable pieces, the visible parts are made of ceramic, such as our Virgen del Carmen.

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.