Italian school. 18th century. "Immaculate Virgin. Alabaster, with polychrome. Measurements: 39 cm. high.

Italian school. 18th century. "Immaculate Virgin. Alabaster, with polychrome. Measurements: 39 cm. high.

Italian school. 18th century.
"Immaculate Virgin.
Alabaster, with polychrome.
Measurements: 39 cm. high.
Mary is represented, following the iconography of the Immaculate Conception, with the lunar crescent at her feet and her hands joined in prayer. The Immaculate Virgin is assimilated to the bride in the "Song of Songs", and various symbols popularised by the "Litany of the Virgin of Loreto" (whose current form dates from 1576) are associated with her. It was 17th century Baroque art that created the definitive type of the Immaculate Conception. Freed of all the symbols of the Litany with which the theologians had overloaded her, surrounded only by angels, she floats in a mandorla on a crescent moon. Sometimes, to recall her victory over original sin, her feet, resting on the globe, crush the head of the tempting serpent.