Spanish school of the first half of the seventeenth century. "Immaculate." Oil on copper.

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Old Masters

By Setdart Auction House

Jun 30, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-06-30 08:30:00 2021-06-30 08:30:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Old Masters https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/old-masters-7134
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• Lot Description
  Spanish school of the first half of the seventeenth century. "Immaculate." Oil on copper. With vintage frame. Measures: 20 x 16 cm; 31 x 26 cm (frame). Devotional image of the Immaculate Conception that follows the iconographic models of the previous century. Thus, we see Mary in a mandorla of golden light, standing in a praying position, raised on the crescent moon (symbol of Diana's chastity) and stepping on the serpent, in allusion to her victory over Original Sin. Above her head we see the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, also wrapped in divine light. On both sides appear the symbols of the Litany, which are completed with the trees and flowers of the landscape in the lower zone, where we can even see the distant outline of a city, in the lower left zone. Medieval Christianity passionately debated the belief that Mary had been conceived without stain of original sin. Some universities and corporations vowed 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 white tunic and blue mantle, hands crossed on her chest, with the moon at her feet and stepping on the infernal serpent. Around her head, like a halo, she wears the twelve stars, symbol of fullness and allusive to the twelve tribes of Israel (which do not appear here). Most of these images are accompanied, as we see here, 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 the painting of the full baroque period the background will already be 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 to the composition in a naturalistic way, and look for a greater dynamism and sense of theatricality.
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