Flemish school; XVII century. "Calvary". Oil... Lot 24

Flemish school; XVII century. "Calvary". Oil on copper. It has slight restorations. Preserves old frame veneered in rosewood. Size: 16,5 x 13,5 cm; 21,5 x 18,5 cm (frame). This canvas shows the Crucifixion with the Virgin, Mary Magdalene and St. John the Evangelist at her feet. In Western art, the representation of Christ on the cross was preferred, as a narrative scene, and the figure of St. John the Baptist was replaced by that of John the Evangelist. An image that in its conception and form is the result of the expression of the people and the deepest feelings that nestled in it. With the economy of the State broken, the nobility in decline and the high clergy burdened with heavy taxes, it was the monasteries, the parishes and the confraternities of clerics and laymen who promoted its development, the works sometimes being financed by popular subscription. Painting was thus forced to capture the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when the Counter-Reformation doctrine demanded from art a realistic language so that the faithful would understand and identify with what was represented, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content to increase the fervor and devotion of the people. The religious subject is, therefore, the preferred theme of Spanish sculpture of this period, which in the first decades of the century began with a priority interest in capturing the natural, to progressively intensify throughout the century the expression of expressive values, which is achieved through the movement and variety of gestures, the use of light resources and the representation of moods and feelings. While in the 17th century the demand for religious art for churches radically ceased in the northern provinces, today's Holland, in Flanders a monumental art flourished in the service of the Catholic Church, partly due to the necessary restoration of the ravages that the wars had caused in churches and convents. In the field of secular art, Flemish painters worked for the court in Brussels and also for the other courts of Europe, producing a painting with classical, mythological and historical themes that was to decorate brilliantly the Royal Sites of Spain, France and England. Thus, there was a proliferation of works of medium and small format, with different themes perfectly framed in a wide range of genres, treated by specialized painters who often collaborated on the same work. In this canvas, on the other hand, we can appreciate the formal novelties, but not the thematic or compositional ones, since the formula of the intimate and sober religious painting of the previous century is maintained.