Spanish school; second half of the 19th century.

Spanish school; second half of the XIX century.
"Dolorosa", 1861.
Oil on canvas.
Signed José Cerrato y Aguilar and dated in the lower left corner.
Preserves the original canvas. Presents craquelure of the time.
Measurements: 111 x 84 cm.
In this work Mary is represented as the Virgin of Sorrows and Solitude, a theme very much to the taste of the Spanish popular devotion, which will enjoy a great diffusion during the Baroque, especially in the works destined to chapels and private altars. The theme is usually represented as we see here, with the Virgin alone in the foreground, in a dark and undefined environment, with an undoubtedly dramatic character. The drooping eyelids, moistened by silent weeping, give the image an intense but restrained pathos. The chiaroscuro models the soft feminine features. In this particular case the figure of the Virgin is represented with a dagger piercing her heart, an iconography that, although frequent in the presentation of the Virgin of Sorrows, is not always present. The figure of the Virgin, depicted bust-length and inscribed in an oval, is shown to the viewer in an absent manner, with her gaze fixed on an exterior zone of the composition, thus showing herself immersed in her pain as a mother.
The work is characterized by the use of dark tones, on which the skin and part of the virgin's cloth provide luminosity. This resource is not only aesthetic, but also thematic, since it introduces the viewer and helps him to empathize with the pain of a mother, who in this case is not presented as a queen of heaven, but as a sufferer.