Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and studio, 'The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin', 17th century

The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and studio

Not on display

About the work

Overview

Surrounded by angels, a graceful and ethereal Virgin Mary crosses her hands over her breast and gazes heavenwards. She wears a white garment and a swirling blue cloak.

Once thought to be by an imitator of Murillo, cleaning work carried out in 1980 revealed a picture of higher quality and the possible participation of the master himself. The lower angels, with expressive hands, twisted bodies and energetic movement, are among the best parts; they are more likely to be by Murillo.

In-depth

Surrounded by angels, a graceful and ethereal Virgin crosses her hands over her breast and gazes heavenwards. She wears a white garment and a swirling blue cloak.

The scene is bathed in a mellow light, and the Virgin is surrounded by a golden haze of clouds into which angels seem to dissolve. The tip of a crescent moon is visible beneath her feet, a symbol associated with the Woman of the Apocalypse and with the Immaculate Conception (the belief that the Virgin was conceived without sin). The Woman of the Apocalypse is described in the Book of Revelation: ‘clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head’ (Revelation 12: 1–4 and 14). Here we don't see the crown of stars, though it is included in Velázquez’s The Immaculate Conception of a few years earlier, commissioned for a Carmelite convent in Seville.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived with sin) was popular in seventeenth-century Spain, especially in Seville where Murillo spent his entire career. Representatives of the Catholic Church in Spain, with the support of the Spanish monarchy, fought to make it into a dogma of faith. While a papal bill of 1661 affirmed it, the doctrine was only officially adopted by the Church in 1854. Murillo played an important role in promoting the idea, painting numerous versions of the subject for both ecclesiastical institutions and private collectors during the 1660s and 1670s. The best of these was made for his patron Don Justino de Neve, whom Murillo also painted, which was subsequently acquired by the Hospital of the Venerables Sacerdotes (and is now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid).

Murillo’s contemporary, Juan de Valdés Leal, who had settled in Seville by 1656, painted his own version of the subject, Immaculate Conception with Two Donors, during the early 1660s.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin
Artist: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and studio
Artist dates: 1617 - 1682
Date made: 17th century
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 211 × 126 cm
Acquisition credit: Bequeathed by Joseph Trueman Mills, 1924
Inventory number: NG3910
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

No. 3910, or a picture of identical composition and size, is said to have been acquired from a convent at Cordova for King Louis-Philippe, ca. 1835–7, and was exhibited with the Galerie Espagnole at the Louvre, 1838–48; Louis-Philippe sale, London, 6 May sqq., 1853 (lot 163; £810), bought by Cave; William Cave sale, London, 29 June, 1854 (lot 78; £745 10sh.), bought by C. Levy. No. 3910 was in the collection of Joseph Trueman Mills, Rugby, by 1883, and was bequeathed by him in 1924.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised by Allan Braham, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School’, London 1988; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1795

A. Palomino, El museo pictorico, y escala óptica, 3 vols, Madrid 1795
1838

Musée du Louvre, Notice des tableaux de la galerie espagnole exposés dans les salles du Musée royal au Louvre, Paris 1838
1848

W. Stirling-Maxwell, Annals of the Artists of Spain, London 1848
1853

Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the First Portion of the Pictures Forming the Celebrated Spanish Gallery of His Majesty the Late King Louis Philippe, London, 6 May 1853 - 7 May 1853
1914

E. Tormo, 'La Inmaculada y el arte español', Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones, XXII, 1914, pp. 108-32, 176-208
1952

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, London 1952
1955

I. Elizalde, En torno a las Inmaculadas de Murillo, Madrid 1955
1970

N. MacLaren and A. Braham, The Spanish School, 2nd edn, London 1970
1972

I.H. Lipschutz, Spanish Painting and the French Romantics, Cambridge MA 1972
1978

J.A. Gaya Nuño, L'opera completa di Murillo, Milan 1978
1980

National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, March 1980 - December 1980', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, V, 1981
1981

J. Baticle and C. Marinas, Notes et documents des Musées de France. La Galerie Espagnole de Louis-Philippe au Louvre, 1838-1848, Paris 1981
1981

D.A. Íñiguez, Murillo. Su vida, su arte, su obra, Madrid 1981
1981

A. Braham, El Greco to Goya: The Taste for Spanish Paintings in Britain and Ireland (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 16 September - 9 November 1981), London 1981
1988

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Allan Braham, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1988
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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You've viewed 6 of 9 works

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and studio, 'The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin', 17th century

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo