True Portrait of Our Lady of Sorrows from “Convento de la Victoria”

A scenario with drapery surrounds Our Lady of Solitude, a variation of the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows, kneeling with her hands in a praying position. She wears a mourning garment; posed on a plinth of silverwork with four small angels, flanked by vases of flowers. It is a true portrait or vera efigie, representing the sculpture that is venerated in the Convento de la Victoria of the Order of Minims of Madrid and which, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth of Valois, was done by Gaspar Becerra in 1563. This image’s fame reached New Spain, where chapels were dedicated to it in the cathedrals of Mexico City and Puebla and in a church in Oaxaca.