Unknown Artist - Untitled

The work is an ex-voto, a composition left in a church upon receiving a requested grace. The iconography is typical of ex-votos, in that on one side it depicts the saint from whom the grace was requested, and on the other the cause for which it was requested. In this case, we have pious women praying beneath the Madonna mourning the Dead Christ (Pietà), and on the other side a sick man on a canopied bed.

The work exhibits all the characteristics of a popular votive offering. Compositionally, there is no balance. The subjects move in a completely two-dimensional space in which the images are juxtaposed. There is no sense of space or perspective, which highlights this work as the product of a genuine, popular spirit. Formally, too, there is a focus on representing the subjects' volume, the plasticity of the draperies, and the anatomy of the bodies, but all of this is done instinctively with little sense of proportion.

The identified characteristics would seem to confirm a 15th-century dating, as one can discern a desire for a naturalistic representation of the human figure, albeit with limited technical means. The work is undoubtedly the work of popular craftsmanship, typical of votive offerings of all eras. The inscription on the work places the painting in the Atri area of ​​Abruzzo.

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