Follows models by Alessandro Allori, late 16th century-early 17th century.

Follows models of ALESSANDRO ALLORI (Florence, 1535 - 1607)
Tuscan school, late sixteenth century-early seventeenth century.
"Madonna Dolorosa".
Oil on panel.
It presents some faults in the gilded frame of the nineteenth century, and non-active xylophages on the back.
Measurements: 32 x 24 cm; 44 x 37,5 cm (frame).

This devotional painting, of sober and meditated composition, responds to an iconographic model that Alessandro Allori, last great exponent of Florentine mannerism, cultivated with special sensitivity: that of the Sorrowful Virgin, serene in her sadness, contemplative before the instruments of the Passion of her Son. The Virgin, with soft and refined features, bows her head slightly, in an attitude that expresses recollection. She contemplates the symbols of the Passion, which rest on the window sill framing her figure: the chalice, the nails and the crown of thorns. The chalice refers to the blood shed in the Crucifixion, but also to the Eucharist, while the crown of thorns and the nails evoke the physical suffering that the Virgin anticipates with sorrowful compassion. The Virgin's gesture is loaded with Christological symbolism: she crosses her hands over her chest, and with one of them she extends her index and middle fingers, in a clear allusion to the dual nature of Christ, human and divine. In the other hand, she wrinkles a white cloth, possibly the veil with which she wiped the face of her Son, or an allusion to the cloth of Veronica.

Specifically, the painting is inspired by the "Madonna with the symbols of the Passion of Christ" (1581) by Allori, preserved in the Uffizi Galleries in Florence. Stylistically, the work also reveals a clear debt to Allori, in the idealization of the faces, the precision of the drawing, and the careful anatomy. As in many of Allori's works, here too there is a certain emotional coldness, an almost sculptural beauty that seeks formal perfection as a vehicle for the spiritual. The figure of the Virgin becomes a model of mannerist restraint, without renouncing tenderness. The palette is sober but harmonious: the dark brown veil of the Virgin, color of the earth and recollection, contrasts with the white of the blouse and draped sleeves, treated with delicacy in the folds and play of light.

Alessandro Allori was an Italian painter belonging to the final period of Florentine Mannerism. Allori was only five years old when his father died and he was taken under the care of Bronzino, a family friend. His entire childhood was spent growing up in Bronzino's workshop in Florence. He was the greatest representative of Florentine painting of his time as he kept alive the models of Andrea del Sarto, Fra Bartolomeo, Pontormo who was Agnolo Bronzino's teacher, etc. Among his main works it is necessary to mention the decoration of the "Estudiolo" of Francis I in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, in addition to a series of paintings, which are distributed among a few private collections around the world, however some of his pieces can be seen in institutions of great artistic importance, examples of this are works such as the portrait of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, or "Susanna and the Elders" in the Musée Magnin in Dijon, "Christ with Martha and Mary" of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, etc..