Eugène Marioton (1857-1933), Bronze Bust Of The Virgin Mary, Mater Dolorosa, Late 19th Century

A superb bronze bust on a pedestal, with a warm brown patina, depicting the Virgin Mary as Mater Dolorosa, signed Eugène Marioton (1857-1933) and stamped with the Siot-Paris foundry mark, resting on a beautiful sea-green marble base.
The delicate features of the Virgin's face and the expression of sorrow that emanates from it spontaneously invite compassion. The drapery of the tunic, which falls from the upper chest to cover the head, is beautifully rendered, revealing a few strands of flowing hair at the sides.
The bronze and its patina are in perfect condition. A small chip with a loss of material is present on the rear right corner of the marble base (see photos).
Total weight: 14.4 kg.

Marian devotion and the prominence of Mater Dolorosa intensified during the theology of the Counter-Reformation. The Virgin of Sorrows is an important subject of meditation and preaching in Catholicism. It is this emotion that the greatest artists sought to express, according to the aesthetics of their time, from the 13th to the 18th centuries and beyond, in the art of sculpture, painting, and also music.

Born in Paris on April 7, 1857, Eugène Marioton was a renowned French sculptor, brother of Claudius Marioton, himself a sculptor, and of the painter Jean Alfred Marioton. He enjoyed a great reputation for some fifty years, producing numerous allegorical subjects, antique and genre scenes, and portraits, which he exhibited at the Salon from 1882 onward. He was a regular member of the Société des Artistes Français and served on the jury for the sculpture section of the Salon in 1905. Before his death in 1933, Marioton received several awards for his work.