Granada School; end of the XVII century.

Granada School; late seventeenth century.
"Immaculate Conception.
Oil on canvas.
It has a period frame.
Measurements: 97 x 91 cm; 109 x 104 cm (frame).
Representation of Mary as Immaculate with the figure of full body, standing on the lunar sphere. It is worth noting that the image dispenses with the usual litanies, thus starring the work the body or image of the Virgin. The author shows us a Purísima conception in a more intimate way without details that distort the presence of Mary, he only adds several little loves to the scene that he places on the sides and in the lower area of the compassion an architecture that subtly blurs and blends with the landscape. The author plays with a delicate chromatic range, where gold has the greatest presence, thus bringing warmth to the scene. However, the dark mantle of the Virgin breaks with the unity of the neutral background, so that the figure of the Virgin acquires a greater emphasis in the scene. In short, the author shows us a devotional image influenced by the aesthetics of painters such as Pedro de moya (Granada, c. 1610- 1674).
Medieval Christianity passionately debated the belief that Mary had been conceived without stain of original sin. Some universities and corporations swore to defend this privilege of the Mother of God, several centuries before the First Vatican Council defined the dogma of faith in 1854. At the end of the Middle Ages the need to give iconographic form to this idea was born, and the model of the Apocalyptic Woman of St. John was taken, maintaining some elements and modifying others (the Apocalyptic Woman is pregnant, but not the Immaculate). The definitive image came to fruition in the 16th century, apparently in Spain. Following a Valencian tradition, the Jesuit Father Alberro had a vision of the Immaculate Conception and described it to the painter Juan de Juanes so that he could capture it as faithfully as possible. It is an evolved iconographic concept, sometimes associated with the theme of the Coronation of the Virgin. Mary appears standing, dressed in a white tunic and blue mantle, her hands crossed on her chest, with the moon at her feet (in memory of Diana's chastity) and stepping on the infernal serpent (symbol of her victory over Original Sin). Around his head, like a halo, he wears the twelve stars, symbol of fullness and allusive to the twelve tribes of Israel. Most of these images are accompanied, in the painting, by the Marian symbols of the litanies and psalms, such as the mystical rose, the palm tree, the cypress, the closed orchard, the ark of Faith, the door of Heaven, the ivory tower, the sun and the moon, the sealed fountain, the cedar of Lebanon, the mirror without stain, the morning star, etc. In Baroque painting, the background is usually celestial and populated with angels, since the artists of the 17th century faithfully maintain the iconographic type, but dispense with the symbols of the litanies or reduce them, incorporating them into the composition in a naturalistic way, and seek a greater dynamism and sense of theatricality.