Murillo’s Marian paintings

Two versions of the Immaculate Conception by Murillo

One of my favorite artists is Esteban Bartolome Murillo, a Spanish artist who painted many masterpieces with a religious theme. Among his paintings are 12 different versions of the Immaculate Conception. In Seville in the time of Murillo, there was great interest and hunger for paintings of Mary conceived without sin, and that is why he ended up painting so many similar works for various churches, in a span of 35 years between 1645 and 1680. At that time there was a controversy between the Franciscans and the Dominicans and the church sided with the Franciscans who claimed that Mary was conceived without sin at the moment of conception, as was later affirmed in the dogma proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854. 

In the paintings, Mary is seen standing on a globe with the snake under her feet, and with various angels surrounding her. The majority of these paintings are in the Prada Museum in Madrid, while 2 of them are in Seville, and a few others in Russia. In all of them, Mary is seen as a 14 or 15-year old beautiful girl, just before she gave birth to Jesus.