THE IMMACULATE 

 CONCEPTION 



BY 



MURILLO 



IN the 17th century the Spanish Inquisition appointed certain 

 familiares whose warrant ran : 



' We give him commission and charge him hence forward that he 

 take particular care to inspect and visit all paintings of sacred subjects 

 which may stand in shops or in public places ; if he finds anything to 

 object to in them he is to take the picture before the Lords of the 

 Inquisition.' 



Murillo, painting for the Church in Seville, the most orthodox city 

 of Spain, may therefore be reckoned correct in his method of presenting 

 sacred subjects. At the period in which he painted, the particular form 

 of Madonna picture most often ordered by the Spanish Church, was 

 that known as the 'Immaculate Conception.' 



The sinless birth of the Virgin was a dogma that had been adopted 

 enthusiastically by the Spanish, so much so that Philip III and 

 Philip IV sent special embassies to Rome to obtain more explicit papal 

 recognition of the doctrine. It did not, however, become an article of 

 of faith till 1854 and, as a subject, it is chiefly confined to the Spanish 

 School. 



The scheme of the picture is invariably taken from the Revelation 

 of St. John. 



' And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven ; a woman clothed 

 with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown 

 of twelve stars ' 



283 



