L'Immacolata Concezione

In early 1600s Seville, few subjects mattered more than this one. After a heated public dispute in 1616, the city had thrown itself behind the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin, and its painters were kept busy turning that doctrine into images the faithful could pray to. Zurbaran, a young painter building his reputation on stark, sculptural figures, made several versions. His Virgin is deliberately girlish, hands joined, eyes raised, standing on a crescent moon among clouds. Scattered around her are small emblems drawn from the litanies sung in her honour, a gate, a tower, a mirror, each one a title given to Mary. The light falls hard and clean across her face, the way it would on carved stone.