Mater Dolorosa; and Christ Bearing the Cross

These recently rediscovered panels are considered by Isabel Mateo (op. cit.) to be among the most exquisite examples of Luis de Morales' small-scale devotional works ('entre lo mejor y más exquisito de la producción de Morales'). After his death, the painter became known as 'el Divino' ('the Divine'), a sobriquet that reflects the religious subjects that dominate his work and speaks to his success in capturing the fervent spirituality of his times. Morales was principally active in Extremadura, in south-western Spain, where he specialised in painting small-scale panels, such as the present pair, intended for private devotion and meditation. By portraying his figures in stark relief against plain dark backgrounds and modelling them in subtle sfumato – a technique learned from copying the Italian masters – Morales created an almost sculptural effect and amplified the emotional intensity of his religious imagery. These two panels of Christ and His mother may once have been joined together to form a portable diptych. Alternatively, as suggested by Mateo, they might have adorned a double-sided monstrance; a vessel whose function it was to hold the consecrated eucharistic host (loc. cit.): as noted by Mateo, a similar pair of panels by Morales’ contemporary Juan de Juanes survive on a monstrance that was made for the parish church of San Andrés in Alcudia.