The Virgin Crushing the Devil - Hispanic artist of the 13th century

The Virgin Crushing the Devil
Wooden sculpture with traces of polychromy
Spanish artist from the Pyrenees area.
Late Romanesque period, 13th century
Carved walnut wood
H 55 cm, W 14 cm, D 12 cm
Very good condition for its age.

This extraordinary wooden sculpture, an important historical and artistic document, perfectly represents the first signs of the rebirth of art after the long night of the darkest years of the Middle Ages.
It was the 13th century, and the first enlightened artists of the Romanesque period were beginning to create works that, despite their evident simplicity, expressed incredible symbolic power and refined stylistic purity.
The journey that would lead, in the following centuries, to the splendor of the Renaissance, passing through the important and surprising lesson of Gothic art, was about to begin.
Here we can admire the innovative and inspired work of an artist who lived almost a thousand years before our time. His hands fashioned a perfect cult image, exclusively sacred, far removed from the religious depictions of centuries to come, which, overriding devotional purpose, exalted themselves in the celebration of individual artistic skills.
At a time of great diffusion of Christianity, sculpture became a simple and effective tool for educating people and converting them to the Christian faith.
Observing the work, its spiritual message is exceptional.
After the original sin, God turns to Satan, curses him, and warns him with a promise: "I will put enmity between you and the Woman, between your offspring and her offspring. She will crush your head, and God himself will conquer." That Woman is the Virgin Mary, from whom Jesus Christ was born, whose sacrifice forever defeated the ancient tempter to save humanity from original sin.
For this reason, in many paintings or statues of the Immaculate Conception, She is depicted crushing a serpent, and more anciently, in the Middle Ages, a Dragon, or the evil rebel Lucifer. The Virgin is depicted here in prayer, with clasped hands, while the Devil writhes at her feet, finally defeated.
The eternal struggle between Good and Evil sees the Triumph of the Mother of God, who appears in a pose of great evocative power and exceptional grace.
The artist offers us an image that embodies the best characteristics of primitive Romanesque art and manages to express an intense Christian message in an extremely concise manner yet with extraordinary stylistic elegance, far removed from the exuberant sculptural virtuosity of the great Renaissance artists.
This is a work that will satisfy the most discerning collector, always seeking the rarest and most moving piece.

The wood is absolutely intact, with a solid and compact consistency.
The traces of polychromy that still cover some parts of the surface are distinguished by a vivid colour, where the very bright red is typical of the lacquering present in medieval artefacts made by Spanish artists.