Spanish school seventeenth century.

17th century Spanish school."Saint Mary of Egypt".Oil on canvas.It has a patch on the back. Needs cleaning.Measurements: 121 x 89 cm, 131 x 99 cm (frame).The work represents a female bust portrait. The woman is leaning on a rock, with her hands in an attitude of prayer, looking with her eyes open and her suffering and penitent face looking at a Crucifix. Due to the attributes such as the skull, the book and the rope on the rock, it can be identified with Saint Maria Egipciaca. Saint Maria Egipciaca (ca. 344 - ca. 421) is venerated as the patron saint of penitent women, especially in the Coptic Church, but also in the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Churches. The main source of information about her is the "Vita" written by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the 6th century. She was born in Egypt, and at the age of twelve she went to Alexandria, where she led a dissolute life, according to some authors, devoting herself to prostitution. However, Sophronius states that she often refused to accept the money offered for her sexual favours, driven only by "insatiable desire and irrepressible passion". After seventeen years, Mary travelled to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, driven by the desire to meet lustful pilgrims. There, however, when she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, an invisible force prevented her from doing so. Aware that this had happened because of her impurity, she felt a strong sense of remorse, and seeing an icon of the Theotokos outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness and promised to renounce the world, consecrating herself to the ascetic life. After this, he tried again to enter the church, and was allowed to do so. After receiving communion, she went into the desert and lived there for the rest of her life as a hermit. According to legend, she took with her only three loaves of bread (symbol of the Eucharist), and lived on what she found in nature.