Viceroyalty school, Cuzco, XVIII century.

Viceroyal school, Cuzco, XVIII century.
"Dolorosa".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has a frame following ancient models.
Measurements: 68 x 50 cm; 84 x 67 cm (frame).
Devotional painting that embodies with intensity the affective spirituality of the Andean baroque. The image represents the Virgin Mary in an attitude of deep recollection and suffering, evoking her pain before the Passion of Christ. Its iconography, high or low gaze, discreet tears, intertwined hands or on the chest, responds to the devotional model spread after the Council of Trent, oriented to arouse empathy and inner contemplation in the faithful.
Aesthetically, the work reveals characteristic traits of late Cuzco painting: marked frontality, emphasis on emotional expression and a rich ornamentation in cloaks and tunics, frequently enhanced with gilding and delicate estofados, as can be seen in the borders of the mantle. The stylization of the face, with its soft and melancholic features, as well as the flat treatment of the background, emphasize its iconic and devotional rather than narrative function.
In the historical context of the 18th century, these images occupied a central place in the domestic and conventual religiosity of the viceroyalty, functioning as objects of meditation and spiritual consolation. La Dolorosa not only manifests the survival of the baroque language, but also the consolidation of a local sensibility that, through emotional intensity and ornamental richness, gave the Marian tradition its own accent in Cusco.