96 - Castilian School; 16th century.

Castilian School; 16th century. “Virgin and Child.” Carved and polychromed wood. It has some damage. Measurements: 42 x 17 x 11 cm. Mary stands upright on a pedestal, holding the Infant Jesus in her arms. She wears a long tunic and a cloak whose drapery creates an interesting interplay of folds, adding volume to the figure. The Child, for his part, is depicted as a child with rounded cheeks and spontaneous gestures. At the beginning of the 16th century, Spain was the European nation best prepared to embrace the new humanist concepts of life and art due to its spiritual, political, and economic conditions, although from the standpoint of the visual arts, its adoption of the styles introduced by Italy was slower due to the need to learn new techniques and to shift the tastes of its clientele. Sculpture perhaps reflects this desire to return to the Greco-Roman classical world better than other artistic fields, exalting human individuality in its nudes and creating a new style whose vitality goes beyond mere imitation.