Cleveland Museum of Art
The Immaculate Conception
Bartolomé Esteban MurilloLinkedCulture matchlcp-ecc1b6ceda28
- Date
- c. 1680
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Culture
- Spain
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 135659
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception maintains that the Virgin Mary was conceived free from sin, therefore ready to be the pure vessel for Christ’s birth. The Immaculate Conception enjoyed intense devotion in Spain during the 1600s, although it was only accepted as official doctrine in 1854. The abstract subject required artists to develop appropriate imagery. The crescent moon, for example, comes from the New Testament vision of Saint John the Evangelist (Revelation 12:1) of “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet.”
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Provenance
- Sir Thomas Sebright, Beechwood near Boxmoor, Hertfordshire; [F. Kleinberger &: Co., New York]. Purchase, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Bequest, 1959.
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