  About the Artwork
  
  
  Within an elaborate framework of architecture and clouds, the Virgin Mary kneels alone. Tiny sculpted tears roll down her cheek as she mourns the death of her son, Jesus. With its skillful use of terracotta, intimate scale, and solemn emotional tenor, this artwork exemplifies the qualities that Spanish baroque sculptor Luisa Roldán was praised for by her contemporaries.  
The only relief known by Roldán, who is best known for her work in the round, it represents a widely venerated but now lost sculpture of the Virgin of Solitude by Gaspar Becerra (1520 – 1570). The statue stood on the altar in the monastery church of Our Lady of Victory in Madrid and functioned as a focal image of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Solitude and of Anguish, a devotional brotherhood that enjoyed royal patronage. Through innovative framing and once-vibrant polychromy applied by her brother-in-law and collaborator, Tomás de los Arcos, Roldán reconceived this famous statue as a heavenly vision for private devotion. The artist proudly announced her elevated role by signing the relief with her title: escultora de cámara (royal sculptor).
  
  
  Title
  Virgin of Solitude
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1705
  
  Artist
  Luisa Roldán
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  Spanish
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Spanish
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Terracotta, paint, glass, wood
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 15 × 10 1/4 inches (38.1 × 26 cm)
  Framed: 23 1/4 × 18 1/2 × 5 1/4 inches (59.1 × 47 × 13.3 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Sculpture
  
  
  Department
  European Sculpture and Dec Arts
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Funds from the Joseph M. DeGrimme Memorial Fund and Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2018.33
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
