THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION IN SPANISH RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE ART

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was a controversial issue for the Catholic Church from the Middle Ages until it was declared dogma in 1854. Its cult was especially wide-spread in Spain, where many works of art were produced to illustrate the idea, especially during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.;The first chapter of this study introduces the types of the Immaculate Conception produced from the time of the kings of Aragon to about 1500. These types include Mary as the New Eve, the Tree of Jesse, the Anna selbdritt and the Embrace at the Golden Gate. The second chapter is a study of the evolution of the definitive iconography of the Immaculate Conception, which is complete by 1600. This type is a conflation of the depiction of the Virgin tota pulchra with details taken from the description in Revelation of the Apocalyptic woman. The third and fourth chapters chronicle the increased personal and political involvement of the Spanish Hapsburgs Philip III and Philip IV in the efforts of the Immaculist orders to achieve dogmatic definition of the doctrine. The propagandist role of art in these efforts is studied with particular attention to the major producers of Virgins of the Immaculate Conception. The fifth chapter introduces an important rosary devotion to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception--the Stellarium. This devotion, which has not been noted by art historians, is reflected in seventeenth century paintings. The epilogue is a brief survey of the Immaculate Conception in art during the reign of Carlos II, who died in 1700.;This study traces the spread of the doctrine and the art reflecting it in Spain, where it was not only supported by the religious orders dedicated to it, but by the Spanish monarchy. The latter, in the early seventeenth century, created a royal junta with the sole task of convincing the papacy to raise the doctrine to dogma of the church.