The Immaculate Conception
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo·c. 1680
Historical Context
Murillo painted this Immaculate Conception around 1680, one of the many versions of this subject that became his most iconic contribution to Spanish painting. The doctrine that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin was passionately defended in Seville, and Murillo's ethereal, cloud-borne Madonnas became the definitive visual expression of this belief. His Immaculate Conception type — the Virgin standing on a crescent moon amid swirling cherubs — was reproduced countless times and remained the standard image for centuries.
Technical Analysis
Murillo's late, vaporous technique creates an almost immaterial quality, with the Virgin's figure emerging from soft clouds of warm golden light. The brushwork is remarkably free and atmospheric, dissolving firm contours into luminous passages that suggest heavenly transcendence.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the Virgin's figure emerging from soft clouds of warm golden light — Murillo's late vaporoso technique at its most immaterial.
- ◆Look at the remarkably free atmospheric brushwork that dissolves firm contours into luminous passages suggesting heavenly transcendence.
- ◆Observe the crescent moon beneath the Virgin's feet — the Immaculate Conception's iconographic foundation, from the Book of Revelation.
- ◆Find the cherubs surrounding the Virgin — rendered with Murillo's characteristic tenderness for children in both sacred and secular contexts.
Provenance
Sir Thomas Sebright, Beechwood near Boxmoor, Hertfordshire; [F. Kleinberger &: Co., New York]. Purchase, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Bequest, 1959.
