Marian VenerationFrancisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664)
The Immaculate Conception, about 1660 
Oil on canvas, 166 x 108 cm
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, NGI 273

The Immaculate Conception was one of the most popular subjects in 17th-century Spanish painting. A lively theological debate grew up around the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived ‘immaculate’, free of original sin. Although the doctrine would not be decreed a dogma until 1853, Pope Alexander VII’s encouragement of Marian veneration in 1661 created a significant demand for devotional images depicting the Virgin. A few years earlier, in Seville, Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644), painter and theologian, wrote a treatise on painting in which he analysed the influence of the Council of Trent on artistic depictions and established an enduring iconographic repertory.

 

In Renaissance Italy, the theme was first evoked in Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate, when, according to the narrative derived from apocryphal accounts and repeated in Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, the Virgin was miraculously conceived without sin. This scene is also featured in the Scrovegni Chapel, painted by Giotto about 1303–1305. In the late 15th century, Carlo Crivelli broke with this iconography and depicted the Virgin enthroned, hands clasped. Angels carry a scroll indicating that the conception occurred ‘ab initio’: in the beginning. A few years later, Luca Signorelli established a direct connection between the redemptive Virgin and the Fall. On the altarpiece he painted for the Cortona church, Adam and Eve grasping the apple appear beneath the feet of the Virgin, who is carried by cherubim.

 

The iconographic elements detailed in Pacheco’s ‘Arte de la pintura’ associate the Immaculate Conception with the woman described in Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation: ‘a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant...’. There are additional, more specific indications; for instance, the Virgin’s garments. Artists followed these rules more or less closely, but the emergence of a model is undeniable.
 

We know of thirteen versions of the Immaculate Conception painted by Zurbarán. The version held by the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin may be compared to two mature works dating from 1661. Outlined against golden clouds from which cherubim occasionally emerge, the Virgin stands on the moon, her head crowned with twelve stars symbolising the apostles. Her features are those of a very young girl, her long hair spread upon her shoulders, her gaze turned toward the sky, crossing her hands in a movement of devotion suggesting that she is drawing her cloak about her. At her feet are Faith, eyes blindfolded, and Hope, who carries an anchor. With the Virgin, who embodies Charity, these figures represent the three theological virtues. The landscape below includes other Marian symbols: the temple, the enclosed garden, the well, the palm and the cypress.