Artwork
Mater Dolorosa with her Hands apart
Mater Dolorosa with her Hands apart is an oil painting by the High Renaissance artist Titian. It dates from 1555 and is held in the collection of the Museo del Prado.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
As a religious work, the painting embodies the spiritual suffering of Mary, representing her sorrowful role within the Christian narrative.
The artwork portrays Mary as the Our Lady of Sorrows, a traditional Christian iconography known as the Mater Dolorosa. The specific posture indicated by the title, her hands held apart, captures a moment of profound grief and emotional surrender, visually emphasizing the Virgin's anguish and mourning. As a religious work, the painting embodies the spiritual suffering of Mary, representing her sorrowful role within the Christian narrative.
Technique & Style
The work is executed in oil paint on a marble support, a combination that links the panel to the Venetian school tradition of the mid-sixteenth century. Its modest scale, measuring 68 cm in height by 53 cm in width, places it firmly within the intimate devotional format favored by Titian for private religious imagery. The marble ground, unusual for a painting, would have lent the surface a cool, luminous quality that shaped the handling of the oil medium and the restrained, contemplative tone of the composition.
Stylistically, the piece belongs to the Venetian school and treats the subject of Our Lady of Sorrows, with the Virgin Mary depicted in a moment of quiet grief. The pairing of oil paint with stone support reflects Titian's late experimentation with unconventional grounds, a practice that gave his religious works of this period their distinctive surface character.
History & Provenance
The painting Mater Dolorosa with her Hands apart is held in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The work, created in 1555, depicts Our Lady of Sorrows and is associated with the Venetian school. While the museum's possession is established, the provided records do not list a specific inventory number or detail any past exhibitions for this piece.
Overview
Created in 1555, the marble work titled Mater Dolorosa with her Hands apart presents the figure of the Virgin Mary in a state of sorrow. The piece is held in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid and exemplifies the High Renaissance approach to religious representation.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Tiziano Vecellio (Italian:; c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( TISH-ən), was an Italian Renaissance painter. The most important artist of Renaissance Venetian…
