Many researchers are waiting for the Carbon 14 test carried out on the Virgin of Hope Macarena to know the approximate period in which the image was made. Researchers and art historians have emphasized for years that hypotheses lead … the painful one at the workshop of Pedro Roldán but there is a sculpture which is the Virgin of the Faith of Écija, which, due to its characteristics, makes us think even more that the owner of the San Gil corporation was sculpted by the sculptor who worked in the second half of the 17th century..
The publication made by Gerardo García León and José Luis Romero Torres at the Art Laboratory of the University of Seville five years ago, together with an almost “iconic” photograph of the Dolorosa by Julio Ojeda, leads us to reflect on the similarities it presents with the Virgin of Hope Macarena after the discovery of the data that links this sculpture to Pedro Roldán. As the article explains, “since 2018, thanks to the discovery of new documentary evidence, an additional piece has been incorporated into the Rolandesque production preserved in Écija. This is the ancient Virgin of Sorrows (or Sorrows), who was part of the Brotherhood of the Rosary, and which had its canonical seat in the now disappeared convent of San Pablo and Santo Domingo.
It was the current Virgen de la Fe, ancient sorrow of the said corporation, which was offered by the Andalusian Dominicans to the brotherhood which paraded every Friday afternoon from the church of Santa Bárbara Ecijana, on one side of the Plaza de España, also known as “the Hall”.
It was discovered, the investigation continues, stressing that there exists “an undated note, written after 1681, through which several questions are formulated on the internal affairs of the brotherhood (…) where it is said that “The tendrils of Our Lady were blessed, by order of my master, to pay Pedro Roldán the amount of the image that comes out on Maundy Thursday. And I gave the graduate Miguel de Aguilar two hundred reals percent of the said amount, and these came from the amount of the said earrings which, although they did not amount to the 200 reals, I filled them.
The investigation leads to the workshop of Pedro Roldán
Taking this into account and observing the photography in this article, the path leads again to the workshop that Pedro Roldán had in the second half of the 17th century between the collections of Santa Marina, San Julián and San Marcos and from which other images that art historians have studied and which closely resemble the Macarena as it is. the Virgin from the major altarpiece of the parish of Sagrario, that of the Hospital de la Caridad or the Piedad de la Mortaja.
The characteristics of the face of the Virgin of the Faith of Écija also certify the resemblance with the image of the brotherhood of San Gil, such as the shape of the eyebrows, the gaze, the lips or the nose, similar elements which are repeated in the production of Roldán, and which can be guessed in other non-painful sculptures.
The head of the corporation Jesús Sin Soga joined hands and belonged to the Rosario brotherhood of the town of Astigitana, which had many conflicts with Soledad for decades, The Soleanos even mocked each other by calling Rosario “la Caracolera”, due to the proximity of its canonical seat to the banks of the Genil River; and the Rosario brothers knew Soledad by the nickname “la Mondonguera”, due to the proximity of their church to the municipal slaughterhouse..
There were numerous riots caused by the “caracoleros” and “mondongueros” during the Good Friday procession of 1786, which resulted in “great scandals and excesses,” according to the article. The Council of Castile condemned the two brotherhoods to abandon public penance. The brotherhood of the Rosary never went out in procession again, remaining today a brotherhood of glory; and La Soledad obtained royal permission to resume this practice in 1834, changing its start to Holy Saturday years later.
During the celebration of 450 years of the creation of the brotherhood of La Soledad in 2023, there was a historic visit in rosary from the image of the parish of Carmen to the chapel of the Virgin of the Rosary of the temple of Santo Domingo, as well as to the Dolorosa de la Fe in Santa Bárbara, a Virgin whose origin is in Seville and with a very special relationship with the Macarena through Pedro Roldán.
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