Little-known wonders of Madrid: the Dormition of the Virgin, from Collegiate Church of San Isidro

One of the most impressive monumental complexes in Madrid, the one, precisely, where lovers of Architecture and above all, of Art, can contemplate true jewels that not in vain will satisfy that Muse thirsty for delicacies that is always and metaphorically speaking, sensitivity, is none other than that referred to its historic temples.

Most, it could be said, even more, if possible, the most emblematic and at the same time, the most continent of an artistic refinement worthy of admiration, belong to a style, which, like that architecture, both palatial and civil, for which the visitor likes to walk so much and in which it is eternally reflected in the multitude of selfies that are taken, defines one of the most important historical-artistic periods in Madrid: the Baroque.

Possibly, we better understand the importance of this style, if we present it together with that superb intellectual rebirth -so exploited, for example, in his historical novels, by writers like Arturo Pérez Reverte- that, based on life and work, both literary as well as artistic, of great personalities -say, for example, Cervantes, Quevedo, Góngora, or Lope de Vega- has gone down in history, like the Spanish Golden Age.

To that time, then, of creative adventures and unparalleled spirituality, belongs a delicate, marvelous and, at the same time, mysterious work of art, of which, although it is known that in times it belonged to the artistic heritage of the central church of Carmen - located on the street that bears his name, parallel to Montera and Preciados streets- nowadays, it remains in the shade and practically unknown to the general public, near the baptistery of the Collegiate Church of San Isidro Labrador.

Based on an ancient tradition that began to be more or less known in Europe from the twelfth century, when her cult began to be instituted and which affirmed that Mary spent three days in transit, before being transferred to heaven body and soul - Like some much older prophets, such as Enoch- this immeasurable and delicate baroque sculpture manages, in the harmonic and detailed constitution of its whole, to make the soul shudder, sympathizing with something so extraordinary to the human spirit, as in the background, we could consider it to be tenderness.

In it, its author -unknown, although, due to his singular mannerism, some experts point out the possibility that he could have come out of or been influenced by the school of Juan de Juni- not only demonstrates a subtle skill in details -let's look, for example , in the folds of the garments, skill, in which centuries before the formidable stonemason workshops of Carrión de los Condes had stood out, architects, to a large extent, of the most outstanding of Palencia's Romanesque sculpture - above all and apart from the interesting detail of placing John and Peter at the head - a veiled reference to those two currents, of which, John's, hardly anything is known, except that his teachings were followed by the mysterious Nestorians who spread out and could be said to have spread diluted by the East? - perhaps, thinking of the ugly details that preceded the Lord's Supper, where everyone wanted to occupy the closest place to the Master, make the height of all the apostles equal al, so that none would stand out and where it is convenient to observe, his realistic gestures.

Even though it is not the original sculpture, which was destroyed during the Civil War, the figure of Mary, made in 1948 by Madrid image maker Tomás Parés, does not detract from the whole, but rather, due to its sweetness and fragility, it seems have molded to him, like a glove.

In short: a work that is worth seeing and above all, regardless of our religious conceptions, let the spirit be carried away by its charm and extraordinary beauty.

NOTICE: Both the text, as well as the photographs that accompany it, as well as the video that illustrates it, are my absolute intellectual property and, therefore, are subject to my Copyright.

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