Lot 641 | Bartolomé Esteban Murillo | Mater Dolorosa

MURILLO, BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN
Sevilla 1618 - 1682
and workshop

Title: Mater Dolorosa.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 105 x 85cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Cf. Literature:
E. Valdivieso, La escuela de Murillo. Aportaciones al conocimiento de sus discípulos y seguidores, Seville 2018.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

Certificate:
Enrique Valdivieso Gonzalez, Seville, 02.03.2019.

The present work was painted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in collaboration with his workshop. It is a repetition of a prototype of the Sorrowful Mother, which clearly shows Murillo's mark and could promote intense devotion in the religious sphere in Seville at the time.
As a result, several clients approached the artist and asked him to make other versions of the same motif as they met their aesthetic taste and at the same time their religious needs. As a result, we know of several workshop copies/versions that repeat the same theme, including the present work. The production of this type of painting by the master with his pupils was a normal process for Murillo and many other artists of the time and corresponded to the routine of a Baroque painter's workshop.

As a rule, these images of the Mater Dolorosa were almost never painted as a stand-alone work but were usually accompanied by another counterpart depicting the Ecce-Homo. In this way, the mother's pain found an explanation and an answer in the image of the suffering Son who, through his martyrdom, redeems man and frees him from the sins of the world.

This painting perfectly reflects Murillo's ideas of the depiction of the Virgin contemplating her scourged and derided son. This contemplation, however, is not imbued with austere drama but contemplates Jesus with serenity and reflection, without exaggerating his suffering. She therefore appears resigned and with her hands folded on her chest, showing the melancholy that pervades her spirit, and clearly refrains from pathos in her lament.