Mater Dolorosa from the Crucifixion group

The artist’s knowledge of Roman art as translated by the mannerism of the 1630s and 1640s is most evident in the Mater Dolorosa from the Crucifixion. Not only is the shape of the body recognizable beneath the drapery, but the pose of the Virgin herself adopts the ‘figura serpentinate’ motif. The concentrated inner tension in which the grieving figure is frozen suggests a direct derivation of the classical contrapposto concept of movement.