Virgin Dolorosa
XVII century. Oil on panel.On display elsewhere
Copy of "The Virgin of the Miracle at Cocentaina". The front shows an archaic image on a gold ground of which the original, now in the monastery at Cocentaina, was supposedly sent by Pope Nicholas V in 1450 to Count Ximén Pérez Roís de Corella. The back is entirely covered with a text that provides information on the miracle in question, which was documented in a notarial act of 1520 now in Alcoy. The copyist reproduced the icon and also its reverse, which in the original is inscribed on beaten silver and here is painted in oil. It states that while mass was being celebrated in the chapel of the count’s palace and although the Virgin was covered by a “veil of thread and silk” the priest perceived her face to be sweating. He came up close, tore off the veil and touched a drop of sweat. In order to “see if by any chance the wood was exuding any type of resin which produced that sweat” he looked behind the image. Nothing to be seen. After careful examination a large crowed of people gathered there swore that the Virgin had wept blood, specifically 27 tears.
Blanco, Miguel Ángel (comisario), Reversos, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2023, p.210, 317
