The Foundation of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The Patrician recounts his Dream to the Pope

The pope receiving the couple is Liberius, who reigned in Rome in the 4th century, and he has the face of the pope alive when the picture was painted. Alexander VII had declared in 1661 that Mary was conceived free of original sin, and Seville, which had campaigned for that declaration for decades, was still celebrating. The canvas and its companion were made in 1664 and 1665 for the parish church of Santa María la Blanca, remodelled for the occasion by the canon Justino de Neve, and they were set under the small dome. They tell how a Roman patrician and his wife dreamt of a church to be built where snow fell in August. Look at the two churchmen beside the pope: one of them is adjusting his eyeglasses. Marshal Soult took the pair to France around 1810, the Musée Napoléon listed them in 1814 and 1815, and they came back to Spain in October 1815.