The Virgin of Sorrows

 

My partner and I have been to quite a few museums and art galleries over the years; we have different tastes in art (he favours the Old Masters; I enjoy the surrealists and quite a lot of modern art as well). 

The two exhibitions we’ve been to in the last few weeks definitely come under Old Masters; ‘Siena: The rise of painting 1300 – 1350’, at the National Gallery in London, showcases some truly stunning and intricate art.  Textured gold leaf halos, masterful use of colours – and of course the artists had to make the paints themselves… Every piece a masterwork.  Then there’s the sculpture, where the sculpted cloaks of religious figures were so beautifully crafted by Gano di Fazio in minute detail and painted in subtle colours that they really look as though they are woven cloth.  I’m a scientist rather than knowledgeable about the arts, but I’m learning.  Names like Pietro Lorenzetti, Niccolò di Buonaccorso, and Duccio were all new to me.

A little closer to home, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has assembled a group of paintings by Flemish master Jan Davidsz de Heem.  We went to see them this time last week.  They’re amazing, exquisitely detailed, with painted cloth so realistic that it looks as though someone had attached some cloth to the painting, and bread that looks as though you could pick it up and eat it.  The fruit he depicts looks juicy and luscious, and the flowers he painted are simply beautiful.

The de Heem exhibit is small (but perfectly formed, to coin a phrase), so we had time to look at some of the other art and objects on display.  We’d been to the Fitzwilliam before so we’ve been around the equally amazing Museum areas. 

I walked into one area of the gallery and saw a sculpture that literally just stopped me in my tracks.  This is the Virgin of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa), sculpted out of wood by Pedro de Mena around 1670 -1675.  The sculpture is much smaller than life-sized but startlingly realistic and absolutely mesmerising.  Mary’s clothes, including her blue robe, are a masterclass in three-dimensional depiction.  Her eyes, and the fallen tears, are created from glass, and her eyelashes are real human hair.  The grief on her face is genuinely heartbreaking.