Spanish school; XVIII century. Lot n° 7

Spanish school; XVIII century. "Immaculate Conception". Carved and polychrome wood. It presents faults in the carving and polychrome. It has loss of the hands. Measurements: 74 x 48 x 28 cm. Made of carved and polychrome wood, the author has collected in this devotional and monumental sculpture, the image of the Virgin, represented as Purisima, full body, on a pedestal of classicist aesthetic motifs, away from the classic ball with the presence of the snake. The Virgin appears dressed in tunic and mantle, although the decoration of both gives rise to visually merge with each other. Despite the loss of both hands, the posture indicates that she was probably conceived with her hands joined in prayer at chest level. It is an image still anchored in the baroque aesthetics, which is reflected in the broad and very chiaroscuro folds of the canvases, worked with a lot of relief. Medieval Christianity passionately debated the belief that Mary had been conceived without the stain of original sin. Some universities and corporations swore 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. 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 a white tunic and blue mantle, her hands crossed on her chest, with the moon at her feet (in memory of Diana's chastity) and stepping on the infernal serpent (symbol of her victory over Original Sin). Around his head, like a halo, he wears the twelve stars, symbol of fullness and allusive to the twelve tribes of Israel. Most of these images are accompanied, in art, by the Marian symbols of the litanies and psalms, such as the mystical rose, the palm tree, the cypress, the enclosed garden, the ark of Faith, the gate of Heaven, the ivory tower, the sun and the moon, the sealed fountain, the cedar of Lebanon, the spotless mirror, the morning star, etc.