Immaculate Conception

ANONYMOUS;

CHIQUET (editor)

Paris, mid-XVIII century.

Laid paper with watermark that is difficult to read.

Good condition. Specific stains in the upper right corner. Period lighting. Full margins.

The iconographic image of the Virgin Mary as the Immaculate Conception is represented standing on a crescent, holding the baby Jesus in her arms, moving him away from the snake she is stepping on.

We find the biblical reference for her in a brief text from the Apocalypse of Saint John: “a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” This passage has been interpreted as a metaphorical image of the Virgin but also of the Church.

This representation deviates slightly from the canonical representations of the Immaculate Conception, by representing the inverted crescent moon, behind the Virgin.