Spanish school; second half of the 18th century.

Spanish school; second half of the 18th century.
"Immaculate".
Carved and polychrome wood.
It presents important faults.
Measurements: 79 x 40 x 20 cm.
The Virgin appears here represented, following the iconography of the Immaculate, with the lunar crescent at her feet and her hands joined as a sign of prayer. The countenance of soft features and the fluidity of the folds of the mantle endow the figure with gracefulness. The orb serves as a pedestal. The Immaculate Virgin is assimilated to the bride of the "Song of Songs", and to her are associated various symbols popularized by the "Litany of the Virgin of Loreto" (whose current form dates from 1576). It is the baroque art of the 17th century that creates the definitive type of the Immaculate Conception, in fact this sculpture follows the aesthetic models of this century. Free from 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.