Viceroyalty school, New Spain or Peru, XVIII century.

Viceroyalty School, New Spain or Peru, XVIII century.
"Virgin of Solitude".
Oil on canvas partially gilded.
Preserves the original canvas.
Measurements. 155 x 102,5 cm; 169 x 116 cm (frame).
A drawn curtain acts as a theatrical threshold and reveals, with restrained solemnity, the monumental figure of the Virgin. She wears a white tunic, an eloquent symbol of her purity, and a dark mantle strewn with embroidered stars, traditional signs of Marian iconography that allude to her status as Queen of Heaven. The hands, clasped on the chest, and the face inclined towards the ground construct an image of recollection and acceptance: Mary appears conscious of her destiny and silently embracing her role in the history of salvation.
The invocation of Our Lady of Solitude is a variant of Our Lady of Sorrows and refers to the last of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin: solitude after the death of Christ. Although the model set by Gaspar Becerra in his famous Virgen de la Soledad del convento de la Victoria established an iconography of "uniquely Spanish" features, later spread throughout the Catholic world, its roots are found in the European expansion of the cult of the Virgin of Sorrows, promoted especially by the Servite Order. Solitude, therefore, is not an isolated invention, but the culmination of a devotional tradition deeply rooted in Counter-Reformation spirituality.
It is worth remembering that, during Spanish colonial rule, religious painting played a central role in the processes of evangelization. American workshops adopted peninsular models, replicating with remarkable fidelity types and iconographies, such as the harquebusier angels or the virgins of triangular composition, which guaranteed doctrinal orthodoxy and catechetical efficacy. However, at the beginning of the 19th century, coinciding with the independence movements and the political opening in different territories, some artists began to reinterpret these inherited formulas, incorporating local features and progressively asserting their own pictorial identity.