Title

Mater Dolorosa

Anonimous

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This Mater Dolorosa, sculpted in wood and polychrome, is one of the most outstanding sculptures in the collection of the Hispanic Society of America. However, its provenance is unknown and it is not linked to any specific center in Castilla y León, although the institution tells us that it was made between 1250 and 1270. It is the only surviving figure of what was probably a sculptural group of the Crucifixion, in which the Sorrowful Virgin would have been located on one side of Christ on the cross, with St. John the Evangelist at the other end (Lenaghan 1998, 134).

Description

The sculptor manages to capture in the Virgin a deep sadness, contained and full of compassion. The piece, of enormous dramatic charge, presents a simple face delimited by the oval shape of her head, in which large eyes on marked buttocks and her fixed, almost hypnotic gaze express an indescribable pain, accentuated by her slightly half-open lips. Her expression leans slightly forward as she looks upward, as if witnessing her son's suffering (Lenaghan 1998, 134).

The body position of the shoulders, gently shrugged, as well as the hands crossed over the chest, create an introspective suffering and highlight the heartbreaking suffering caused by the image she is contemplating. The figure wears a double veil that emphasizes her somewhat idealized, androgynous features, and a mantle, similar to a gossamer chasuble, which fulfills a symbolic function, linking the virgin to the church, and an ornamental one, delimiting the figure through the symbolic draping of its folds around her (Lenaghan 1998, 134).

Locations

• 1200 - XX^th c.

  region

  Possible origin from Castile and Leon, Castilla y León (Spain)

• XX^th c. - present

  museum

  The Hispanic Society of America, New York (United States)