Follower of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Follower of BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN MURILLO, (Seville, 1617 - Cádiz, 1682)
"The colossal".
Oil on board.
Measurements. 43,5 x 32 cm; 52,5 x 41 cm (frame).
This Immaculate Conception follows the model of the famous version, made by Murillo and known as the Immaculate Conception of the Escorial. It is one of the most significant typologies of the Marian iconography developed in the Spanish Baroque painting of the 17th century. The work by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and preserved in the collection of the Prado Museum, is part of the broad devotional tradition that culminated in the visual consolidation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
The painting represents the Virgin Mary as a young and ethereal figure, located in a celestial space, elevated on clouds and surrounded by radiant light, in a composition of great balance and softness. Her posture, slightly ascending and with her hands joined in an attitude of prayer, reinforces the idea of absolute purity and spiritual elevation. The idealized treatment of the face and the delicacy of the features contribute to build an image of great serenity and contained beauty, in accordance with the theological values of the theme. Murillo developed a fully baroque language, characterized by the softness of the forms, the enveloping luminosity and a delicate chromatic palette, dominated by blues, whites and warm tones that accentuate the celestial character of the scene. The light, of diffuse origin, models the figure without abruptness, generating a vaporous effect that reinforces the sensation of weightlessness.
The theme of the Immaculate Conception, whose dogmatic definition was consolidated in the nineteenth century under the pontificate of Pius IX, had already been widely disseminated in the Counter-Reformation spirituality of the seventeenth century. In this context, Murillo's painting played a fundamental role in the fixation of its iconography, becoming one of the most influential models for the representation of the Virgin in Spanish painting.