Immaculate Conception in Art
Repost from last year.
“God Ineffable — whose ways are mercy and truth, whose will is omnipotence itself, and whose wisdom “reaches from end to end mightily, and orders all things sweetly” — having foreseen from all eternity the lamentable wretchedness of the entire human race which would result from the sin of Adam, decreed, by a plan hidden from the centuries, to complete the first work of his goodness by a mystery yet more wondrously sublime through the Incarnation of the Word.” -Apostolic Constitution issued by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854 Ineffabilis Deus
The Blessed Virgin Mary “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin.” Here are seven beautiful paintings inspired by The Immaculate Conception. There are many more. Even before I converted and before I understood something of what it meant, I was mystified by the beauty of the Blessed Virgin Mary in artwork.
The Immaculate Conception by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1768)
The Immaculate Conception, Jusepe de Ribera (1635)
The Immaculate Conception, Diego Velazquez (1619)
The Immaculate Conception, Jose Antolinez (1650)
The Immaculate Conception, Francisco de Zurbarán (1628-1630)
The Immaculate Conception - The Esquilache, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1645)
La Inmaculada Concepción del espejo, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1660-1678)
La Inmaculada Concepción de El Escorial, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1660-1665)
The Immaculate Conception of the Venerable Ones, or of Soult, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1678)
The Immaculate Conception - La Colosal, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1650)
Immaculate Conception, Giuseppe Angeli (1765)
Category: Art
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- MARY IMMACULATE: THE CERTAINTY THAT GOD DOES NOT FAIL « Parchment Paradigm+ | December 11, 2012
Beautiful!!
Thank you for these gorgeous images of Our Blessed Mother. “Hail Mary, full of grace!”
God bless you Anonymous.
I think the last painting, by Angeli, is my favorite. Though they are all beautiful. I have to laugh at all the fat little angel babies!
Thanks for this post, Stacy. A blessed Feast of Our Lady to you!!
Thank you for posting this, Stacy! Beautiful pictures!
Stacy, These photos of Our Lady, pure and beautiful, are breathtaking!
Thank you!
I especially like the fifth and seventh ones. Do you have a favorite?
Diego Velazquez's painting is quite striking. Thank you!
Thanks guys! JC, It was difficult just selecting seven that were my favorites. I think I like the first and the last ones best though. I'm like MCH too — I love the fat baby angels.
It is a toss up between The Immaculate Conception, Francisco de Zurbarán (1628-1630) and The Esquilache, Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1645) for me. The Immaculate Conception, Jose Antolinez (1650) however is just plain freaky looking. The little baby angels look really weird to me.
What gets me about all of this Christian art, and don't take this the wrong way, is the fact that everyone in it is white. Why is that? Shouldn't they be more Middle Eastern looking?
Other than that it's beautiful stuff. If only I could draw stick figures so well…
Real Christians read the Bible. Real Christians worship our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Real Christians do not worship Mary. Real Christians do not worship false idols..
Asking Mary for prayers is not worshiping a false idol.
Hey wOb, you just described the Catholic church to a T, thanks!
Here we go again. As a Catholic who has always tried my best to practice my faith, I can assure you we don’t WORSHIP Mary. We HONOR Her as the mother of our Savior. There is a BIG difference. She is prayed to as an intercessor, because who better to go to than the Mother of our Lord, Who will plead our case for us? Why do people of other faiths have such a problem with this? She is another of God’s gifts to us and another of His splendid Mysteries.
@wOb….you have expressed a common misconception concerning
the relationship Catholics have with Mary, Mother of God. We
never worship any being except God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, The Blessed Trinity. We venerate Mary
and the saints, seeking their intercession for our daily spiritual needs because of their exalted position(s). We do believe that Mary is our spiritual Mother and in that regard can
bring us closer to her Divine Son, Jesus Christ. There is a Biblical basis for this belief in Jesus’words from the cross given in John 19:26-7. I hope this helps you understand better
Catholicity….and Dan also.
In response to wOb: In Mt 17, Mk 9 and again in Lk 9 we have the story of the transfiguration. In this story Our Lord is glorified in front of three of His apostles. On either side of Jesus appear Moses and Elijah. Both are long dead, correct? Yet here they are apparently quite alive and speaking to Jesus. In Luke’s version they are well aware of what is going to take place in Jerusalem in the very near future. These two long since dead men are alive, know what’s going on and Jesus apparently has no problem speaking with them. Why then can’t we speak to Mary or any of the saints? Why can’t we ask them for their prayers? If Moses and Elijah were aware of current events wouldn’t you agree that Mary is?
To WOB….Let’s not have that negativity. Mary is not “false” or an “idol”. She is the Blessed Mother of Jesus and when you love her, you love Him! He honors and loves his Holy Mother and we all should.
I like the last painting..the Angeli one…there are numerous people there celebrating the creation of such a being. The artists capacity to paint fabric swirling in the wind is amazing…the capacity to create such beauty from plops of pigmented oil paint is beyond my minds ability to understand.
The traditional Eastern icon of the conception of the Theotokos shows Ss. Joachim and Anna embracing and kissing by a bed, with an empty cradle in the corner.
Nice. Thank you.
May God bless. The last painting!
Stacy,
Thank you for the beautiful pictures. I really enjoyed them and was happy to find this site. As usual though, when I wonder down to peoples comments I inevidably find some garbage. And talk that has nothing to do with anything here today. Why? Why do people who have a problem with the Catholic Church need to attack those that believe and or ruin my enjoyment of the day which was your site.Do these people have nothing better to do than search out these sites and post horrible untruths and negative stuff. Oh my word the stuff is just rediculous. A rosary to Our Lady for the hatred posted here today and for the people that posted it is in order..Thank you for your pictures. I enjoyed them greatly.I think if the comments here have nothing to do with the page, you should not post them. Why give some of these nuts the time of day…get rid of the nuts….Blessed Mother please help some of these lost souls.
Dear Rose,
Great advice. I posted these last year, and have added to them some. Some of those comments were from back then when a bunch of angry people were obsessed with this blog.
But – I have taken your advice. I trashed the ugly comments, and removed any reference to them from the other comments.
Thank you for praying. For that reason, I’m glad you saw them, but by your wise advice, no one else will have to. Sorry about that.
In Christ,
Stacy
Rose, those who attack our Blessed Mother and who hate the Catholic Church are ignorant of revealed TRUTH! They ultimately are poor deluded followers of Luther, whether they know it or not. However, I have always believed that deep down in their error led souls they know that something is wrong…Hence they must constantly reassure themselves that Catholicism is evil and that as a result, their man-made “religions’ (all 33,000 protestant “denominations”) are “true. We have been “explaining” the difference between veneration and worship to them for almost 500 years but they don’t want to hear it…Most of them are too stupid to understand anyway, so best to utter a prayer here and there for them…After all, in my conversations with some that I know, they will tell you that the Ten Commandments are not that important because Jesus died for them and they are “saved” anyway, simply by “faith” in him!! Need I say more?
Rose, have pity on them and pray for them. I’m speaking as a convert to the faith some years ago. Our Lady herself revealed THE TRUTH OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH to me in an instant when I prayed the rosary for the first time. Each time I receive JESUS in the Eucharist, I thank Him for His Mother who brought me to him. I love her so much and a big thank you to Stacy for posting these beautiful images. From “A grateful soul”
Stacy, great website! When you or your work is being attacked it means that you’re doing the Lord’s work or moving towards the Lord. I read a quote from Padre Pio that said that he was more concerned when he wasn’t being attacked. When he was being attacked it meant that he was on the right track. So, in a strange way, being attacked, whether in the form of subtle complaints or criticism, is actually a compliment. Keep up the good work!!!!!
WOB. real Christians canonized the bible.Real Christians have existed since Christ and Apostles founded Christianity.Real Christians should read what the the Real Christian Church really teaches about Mary and would realize that Catholics dont worship her or anyone other than GOD ALONE and have always believed that alway will.Mary is the Mother of God ( THE SAVIOR) thats what Jesus name means.The Mother of ADONAI (MY LORD) the Mother of EMMANUEL ( God with us)the Mother of her other offspring THOSE WHO KEEP and TESTIFY THE WORD OF GOD! read the BIBLE REVELATION 12.. are you one of her other offspings ? Catholics are! and always will Honor not Worship our Mother..The Queen because she is THE KING of KINGS mom !
Stacy, thank you for posting these beautiful works of art of our beloved and beautiful Mother Blessed Virgin Mary, The Immaculate Conception. The Archangel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, “Hail, full of grace” proclaims Her Immaculate Conception which, in biblical Greek, Kecharitomene, is translated, “Hail, you who have been made graceful, charming, lovely, agreeable. Also, to have been filled with grace or compassed with favor or honored with blessings. In Hebrew thought, a name distinguishes the person, to tell something of what kind of person he/she is. A name conferred by Yahweh Himself is an act of ownership and gives His protection to the person named. Here, Mary alone in all of salvation history, is uniquely addressed with an extraordinary name, “Kecharitomene”, one who has been so favored by God prior to Gabriel’s greeting. The literal translation is: “Hail, [you who] have been filled with grace”, or “honored with blessings”, or “made graceful”, or “charming”, “lovely”, etc. Used here, in this form, only once in the New Testament, kecharitomene, from the rare verb charitoo, is a passive participle, perfect tense, feminine, singular and vocative. Simply stated, our Blessed Mother Mary, the Immaculate Conception, was created full of grace, without the stain of Original Sin, at the exact moment of her conception.
When the Koine Greek of the New Testament is translated, there is revealed great treasures of love and devotion with which the Apostles and first Christians venerated the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Catholic Church, in the Vatican II Constitution on the Church says, “…the faithful must also venerate the memory above all of the glorious and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.” Amen! and Amen! Say the children of Blessed Mother Mary!
Beautiful paintings!!! I wonder about something however. Since the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception was made in the year 1854, how is it that the titles of the paintings bear the names of the “Immaculate Conception” since most of them were painted around 200 years before?
Blessed Catholic, the reason is that the Catholic people have always know by the Sensus Fidei (divinely given instinct?) that since Jesus is God, that the mother of His human nature would have had to be perfectly sinless from her comception. How could God take flesh and reside in a womb for nine months without being dishomored as God, UNLESS that mother was Immaculately , absolutely sin free? So, again, as with everything else the Church teaches, it is simply a matter of logic…Since we know that Christ rose from the dead, then it follows that every other truth has to be so, even before the popes define these truths…Hope this helps.
Okay I found the answer to my question here: http://blog.newadvent.org/2012/12/immaculate-conception-from-controversy.html
Thank you JohnD.
Bessed2bCatholic,
Great question! Thank you John D.!
I was in the process of looking it up in my electronic version of Ludwig Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma because he did a fantastic job of showing the development of dogmas. Some people implicitly taught this, and that increased over time (to put it way too simply), until it was explicitly declared in 1854. Ott even dates it back to the seventh century.
Here’s a quote from his book:
“Under the influence of St. Bernard, the leading theologians of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (Petrus Lombardus, St. Alexander of Hales, St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas; cf. S. th. III 27, 2), rejected the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Their difficulty was that they had not yet found the way to bring Mary’s freedom from original sin into consonance with the universality of original sin, and with the necessity of all men for redemption.”
There’s much more to it, of course, but even 200 years before it was declared revealed truth, artists would have been honoring Mary’s Immaculate Conception because many people by then already held it as true.
Great video! Thanks again!
\\They ultimately are poor deluded followers of Luther, whether they know it or not. \\
John D, did you know that Luther himself was greatly devoted to Our Lady? He believed in the Immaculate Conception and his last sermon was on her Assumption.
Thanks Jack;
Luther died about half an hour after he was stricken at a dinner. According to the late Fr. Malachi Martin, Luther died blaspheming God. Luther wrote a letter to (Philip?) melancton, a fellow “reformer” in which he states, “Sin often and sin boldly!” That apparently is because he believed and originated the “rotten banana” doctrine…That’s the belief that God’s word declaring that nothing impure can enter Heaven is not true. he taught that€Christ covers our sins with his scrifice on Calvary and there fore there isn’t even a Purgatory…so the rottenness of sin remains on the soul but God allows it into Heaven because the sin is hidden beneath the white garments washed in the blood of the lamb? It doesn’t matter what Luther thought of Mary, he has led millions to hell…Millions who will never confess their sins or receive the Real Body and Blood of Christ.
\\that since Jesus is God, that the mother of His human nature would have had to be perfectly sinless from her comception.\\
The Theotokos is not merely the mother of a human nature. This is the heresy of Nestorius.
She is the mother of a PERSON, and this person is both God and Man.
Hello…absolutely beautiful pictures…love them!!
concerning WOB’s comment….Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without God’s consent…God allows comments like this, as He is placing another person before us who is in need of prayer..he loves them dearly and wants them to know the truth…(if the comment wasn’t there, we would not know that this person needs prayers)… and what better way for them to learn than by reciting our Mother Mary’s rosary for them. Miracle’s happen through the rosary!!