Manuel de Arellano

MANUEL DE ARELLANO (active mainly between 1690 -1721).
"Dolorosa".
Oil on copper.
Presents faults.
Measurements: 48 x 37 cm.
This work represents the Virgin Mary in her invocation of the Dolorosa, iconography focused on the intimate suffering of the Mother before the Passion of Christ. The figure, conceived as a half or three-quarter bust, concentrates the emotion in the elevated face. The choice of copper as support, a material appreciated for its smooth surface and its capacity to intensify the chromatic brightness, favors a meticulous execution, with defined contours and delicate gradations of light, in accordance with the devotional sensibility of the Novo-Hispanic painting of the end of the XVII century and the beginning of the XVIII century.
Manuel de Arellano, Mexican or Novo-Hispanic painter, came from a family of artists: he was the son of the painter Antonio de Arellano, a circumstance that integrated him from an early age into a consolidated professional environment in Mexico City. It is considered probable that he was trained in the circle of Cristóbal de Villalpando, whose imprint can be seen in the elegance of the Marian types, the use of intense hallmarks of light and technical refinement. Documentarily active between 1690 and 1721, he was part, together with Juan Correa and Antonio Torres, of the most prestigious group of painters in the transition from the XVII to the XVIII century in New Spain.
Religious themes constituted the main axis of his production, although he also stood out for narrative compositions of an urban and documentary nature, such as Traslado de la imagen y estreno del santuario de Guadalupe (1709) or Celebridad de Nochebuena en México (1720-1721), in which he offered a valuable visual chronicle of the social life of the viceregal capital. Likewise, some of his works have been considered antecedents of 18th century caste painting, by incorporating representations of racial types within complex scenes.
In the "Dolorosa" catalogued here, the concentration in the affective expression responds to the counter-reformist spirituality still in force in the New Spain, where the Marian image functioned as a vehicle of empathy and pious contemplation. The emotional intensity, together with the technical precision that the copper allows, suggests a work destined for private devotion or a domestic oratory, in accordance with the format and dimensions.