The Immaculate Conception
Miguel Jacinto Meléndez (Oviedo 1679 – Madrid 1736)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1731 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2172 x 1524 mm (85 1/2 x 60 in)
Order this imageCollection
Shugborough Estate, Staffordshire
NT 1271038
Caption
The Immaculate Conception is from the teaching of the Catholic Church which says that the Virgin Mary was conceived without the stain of Original Sin. The iconography derives from St John the Evangelist’s description of the Woman of the Apocalypse ‘a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars in his Revelation 12:1-4 and 14. Putti-angels carry the symbols of the Marian attributes of purity: the palm, lily, roses, olive branch and the mirror (speculum sine macula) as well as an iris which referring to her sorrows at Christ's Passion. This subject was represented frequently in Baroque painting and one of the earliest proponents was Murillo in Seville, Spain. This painting is derived from that by Carreño de Miranda in Vittoria Cathedral, the Church of the Incarnation, in Madrid. Meléndez was painter to King Philip V (1683 - 1746) in the early 18th century.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Immaculate Conception, by Miguel Jacinto Meléndez (1679–1736), signed and dated: bottom left, [Maltese Cross symbol] MCL. MEz. Pr. Rs. Ft. A. dt 1731 Matriti 1731. Records the artist's position as painter to King Philip V. The Virgin or Madonna, full-length, standing in the clouds surrounded by putti holding flowers, wearing white robes with a blue-green cloak, a dove hovers over her head, appears over the sickle moon which two cherubs decorate with flowers. The symbols of the Immaculate Conception are included: the lily, the olive and the speculum sine macula. Derived from paintings of this subject by Carreño de Miranda, in Vittoria Cathedral, the Church of the Incarnation in Madrid, or that in the Hispanic Society, New York and also inspired by the Seville artist Murillo.
Provenance
Accepted by H.M. Treasury in lieu of estate duties following the death of Thomas Edward Anson (1883 – 1960) the 4th Earl of Lichfield and given on loan to The National Trust for display at Shugborough Hall in March 1966. Transferred as a gift to The National Trust by H.M. Treasury on the 30th October 1984.
Marks and inscriptions
1731 (signed and dated)
Makers and roles
Miguel Jacinto Meléndez (Oviedo 1679 – Madrid 1736), artist