Advert Description
Are you interested in this item? This item is up for auction at Catawiki. Please click on "respond to advert" (orange button) to get redirected to the Catawiki website. Catawiki’s goal is to make special objects universally available. Our weekly auctions feature thousands of unusual, rare, and exceptional objects you won’t find in just any store. Splendid dress size of Italian origin, 19th century. Outstanding sculptural mastery in the portrait of the piece, of an impressive sweetness; the eyes are made of vitreous paste, which contributes to the feeling of realism.
In contrast to the traditional “capipotas” (cap i pota, “head and feet”), this piece is entirely carved in wood, with articulated arms.
The iconography is Marian, of the Immaculate Virgin, something unusual in the carvings on the vestments. The base, also original, is part of this iconography, which has its origin in the representation of the Virgin as narrated in her appearance in the Apocalypse, chapter 12, verses 1-17:
“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. (...). And that great dragon was thrown out, the old serpent, called Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown to the ground, and his angels were thrown with him."
The representation is completely faithful to the passage, presenting the Virgin wrapped in a celestial mantle and wearing a crown of twelve stars, seated on the terrestrial sphere and a crescent, stepping on a serpent or dragon that symbolizes the Devil and that, in turn, time, he carries in his mouth the apple that made Adam and Eve fall into temptation. The Virgin is thus presented as exempt from original sin. It is the representation of the Catholic Church of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, as the only human being conceived without original sin.
Shipping costs include professional, custom-made packaging; and personalized shipping, with tracking number and guarantee. 67585301
