Located in the former church of the Jesuit Order in Oviedo, nowadays parish of San Isidoro el Real, the entrance arch to the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows displays 24 emblems that come from an only source: the book Mater Amoris et Doloris, written by the German priest Anton Ginther and issued for the first time in Augsburg in 1711.Both the authorship and the specific chronology of these paintings remain unknown, although the Annuae litterae Castellanae Provinciae from 1737-1740 establish a terminus post quem for dating, thanks to the following record: “[in this triennium] works in the magnificent structure of the temple keep going on and they have progressed a lot in this three years, with images and other very splendid objects being placed; an altar of Our Lady of Sorrows has recently been erected” (ARSICast. 32 II f. 604v).Thus considering that it is very likely that this programme was depicted while the church belonged to the Society of Jesus, as well as the fact that the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles III decreed the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish domains in 1767, it is reasonable to believe that these emblems were painted on the second third of the XVIIIth century.
Gallery of emblems
