The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial
Ca. 1665. Oil on canvas.Room 017
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s versions of the Immaculate Conception were among his greatest iconographic successes. His treatment of the subject met with public acclaim, not only for the tender beauty of his figures but also because his interpretations were perfectly in tune with the groundswell of popular devotion in the seventeenth century. In Seville, as elsewhere in Catholic Europe, the belief that Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception sparked lively debate, since it was not shared by all religious orders. While the Dominicans remained sceptical, Franciscans and Jesuits insisted that this belief should be elevated into a dogma, mobilising the people of Seville and turning their cause into a national issue. Copious use was made of cultural resources in a bid to convince the faithful by appealing to their senses: literary competitions led to catchy hymns, while countless images of the Immaculate Conception were commissioned.
While this theme first emerged in Italy and Spain in the sixteenth century, compositions became increasingly simplified over the following century, culminating in the approach adopted by Murillo. Complex allegories intended to account for Mary’s purity by reference to the genealogy of Jesus Christ – as in some of the paintings by Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) and Luis de Vargas (c. 1505–1567) – gave way to models in which Mary was associated with the Woman of the Apocalypse referred to by Saint John, and with the attributes mentioned in the Lauretan litanies. During the early seventeenth century, a number of artists developed a standard representation based on these features. Chief among them was Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644), whose Arte de la pintura (1649) laid down the canonical treatment of this subject. Murillo followed some of his recommendations – such as the colour of Mary’s clothes and the moon beneath her feet – but gradually reduced the number of elements associated with her, relegating them to the gold-tinged celestial background.
Murillo’s model indicates a familiarity not just with the iconographic tradition of the Seville school but also with the work of certain Italian masters, some of whose canvases he was able to examine. In his Immaculate Conception known as La Colosal painted for the now-demolished convent church of San Francisco in Seville, echoes can be discerned of the version produced by Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652) for the Augustinian church of La Purísima Concepción in Salamanca. In addition, he also made use of an engraving by Simone Catarini (1612–1648) of the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin. Murillo thus displayed his admiration for the work of certain contemporary foreign artists, combining their compositions in new ways.
That said, the painting which most influenced his development of this theme was Guido Reni’s Immaculate Conception now in the Metropolitan Museum, which may well have hung in Seville cathedral in the seventeenth century. Comparison of Reni’s painting with this canvas by Murillo reveals similarities both in the positioning of the central figure – Mary stands, one knee advanced, on a crescent moon – and in her facial expression. An even stronger resemblance to Guido’s painting is apparent in Murillo’s Immaculate Conception in the oratory of San Felipe Neri in Cádiz, which includes the crown of stars against a very bright background, as well as the group of angels. However, Murillo went on to introduce a number of elements intended to engage more directly with the devotional surge in Spain, and perhaps even to ensure greater decorum; in all instances, for instance, he covered the Virgin’s feet. Before the Sevillian provenance of Reni’s painting was established, August L. Mayer pointed out that the upper section of Murillo’s Aranjuez Immaculate Conception was similar to Reni’s Assumption of the Virgin then in the Gemäldegalerie at the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum. Later, Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez once again noted the direct influence of a version by Reni in the church of San Biagio in Forlì on an Immaculate Conception by Murillo now in the Ishizuka collection, Tokyo.
The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial is so called because it hung in the Casita del Príncipe (Prince’s House), part of the El Escorial monastery complex, around 1787, following its acquisition – probably in Seville – by Charles IV. It is thought to have belonged previously either to the cabinetmaker Baltasar Angelo or to the naturalist Pedro Franco Dávila (1711–1786). The painting can be reliably dated to around 1665, shortly after Pope Alexander VII issued two papal bulls in favour of the dogma, as a result of which Murillo received numerous commissions. In order to meet demand and avoid repeating a single composition in the same city, the artist opted to produce a series of variations on a standard design.
Japón, Rafael, 'Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. The Inmaculate Conception of El Escorial'. In: Guido Reni, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2023, p.298-300 nº 56
