Inmaculada Concepción

Francisco de Herrera the Elder's Immaculate Conception, dated 1616, shows the Virgin in the moment of her conception free from original sin, a devotion widely promoted in seventeenth-century Seville. Mary stands with her head bowed, eyes nearly closed and hands joined before her chest in prayer. She wears a loose white tunic without a belt and a sky-blue mantle that a cherub stirs with its movement, giving life to an otherwise frontal and rigid figure. Beneath her feet is an inverted, transparent crescent moon, and above, a choir of angelic faces on clouds frames the arched top, with the Holy Spirit as a dove at the centre. The drawing is firm and linear, in keeping with Pacheco and Juan de Roelas. The original colours were different, with a reddish tunic and a blue mantle, and the canvas suffered repainting due to exposure to the weather. It was first displayed in the open air on the cathedral steps, part of guild celebrations of the Immaculate Conception, and it now hangs in a glazed balcony in the Patio de los Naranjos.

Painter

Francisco Herrera the Elder

Date

1616

Medium

oil paint

Museum

Seville Cathedral, Seville

Genre

Baroque

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