Italian school; XVIII century.

Italian school; XVIII century.
"Immaculate".
Oil on canvas.
Presents faults and losses.
It has inscription on the back.
Measurements: 188 x 119 cm; 208 x 139 cm (frame).
Close to the models of Carlo Maratta, whose influence was prolonged in a decisive way beyond his time, the work responds to an ideal of serene and balanced beauty, where the religious emotion is expressed by means of the formal harmony more than through the extreme dramatism.
From the stylistic point of view, the composition is articulated around the central figure of the Virgin, represented in an ascending attitude, with her hands joined in a devotional gesture and her face raised upwards. The canon is slender and elegant, and the movement of the mantle, wide and enveloping, brings dynamism without breaking the general balance of the whole. The chromatism, dominated by soft and warm tones, is integrated in a luminous and golden atmosphere, which softens the hallmarks and reinforces the idealized character of the scene, in clear harmony with the baroque classicism inherited from Maratta.
The pictorial quality can be appreciated in the careful underlying drawing, fundamental in the Maratta tradition, as well as in the correct anatomical articulation and in the delicate treatment of the faces. The brushstroke, contained and melted, avoids excessively material effects and favors a polished pictorial surface, oriented to visual clarity and iconographic legibility. Despite the visible wear of the support and the pictorial layer, the work retains a remarkable formal coherence and an appreciable compositional elegance.
The relationship with Carlo Maratta's own stylistic traits is evident in the idealization of the Marian face, the solemn composure, the balance between movement and repose and the clear subordination of the secondary elements to the main figure. Maratta, heir to the classicism of the Carracci and Raphael, established a model of devotional painting that combined decorum, clarity and ideal beauty, widely disseminated through his disciples and followers during the eighteenth century.