Antique 17th-century painting on copper—Mary with Christ—

This painting on copper is a depiction of the Pietà, strongly inspired by the famous compositional scheme of the 16th-century Spanish painter Luis de Morales, nicknamed “El Divino” due to the predominantly religious nature of his subjects. The Virgin Mary clings to and sorrowfully cradles the lifeless face and body of Jesus Christ. The strong contrasts of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), the intimate drama of the faces, and the shape of the hands and tapered fingers are unmistakable features of Luis de Morales’s style. The artist and his workshop produced numerous variations of this specific devotional composition, now preserved in major collections such as the Museo del Prado and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.Given the immense popularity of this model in subsequent centuries (particularly during the 17th century), the work may be a later reinterpretation by a European school of painting. Of fine painterly quality. Dimensions: 16 x 13 cm