On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P02992
- Author
- Zurbarán, Francisco de (Spanish)
- Title
- The Immaculate Conception
- Chronology
- Ca. 1630
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 128 cm x 89 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- COMPRA
- Procedence
- Acquisition, 1956
The worship of the Immaculate
Virgin is one of
seventeenth-century Spain's
identity traits, especially
following a considerable argument
between her defenders and her
detractors, which took place in
Seville in 1616. From then on, that
city became one of the country's
leading conceptionist centers and
its painters dedicated much of
their energy to promote that
devotion. Zurbarán was one of the
most active artists in that sense.
He made various works on that
subject, like the present one,
which is one of his earliest
compositions. It depicts his
characteristic girlish and ecstatic
image of the Virgin.
She appears with her hands joined
in prayer, surrounded by symbols of
the litanies that recall the
virtures accompanying the image of
the Virgin.
The abundance of those complex
signs, which must be understood
theologically, offers the faithful
two possible ways of approaching
this work: that of the extremely
complex doctrinal manifesto
understood by a limited number of
specialists, and the votive image
of a handsome and childlike Mary
whose appearance can awaken the
fervor of even the least
sophisticated believers.
Location on the map
