A Painter In The Style Of Cortona, 17th Century, The Immaculate Conception

Cortona-school painter, 17th century

Immaculate Conception

Oil on copper, 26.5 x 21 cm

With frame, 48 x 39 cm

A small oil painting on copper, in an elongated octagonal shape, depicting the Immaculate Conception according to traditional iconography: the Virgin, dressed in red and wrapped in a wide blue mantle, is portrayed standing on a crescent moon, her hands crossed over her chest in a gesture of humble contemplation, her head bowed and her eyes closed, while at her feet lies the defeated dragon, a symbol of original sin overcome by Marian purity. Her head is encircled by a crown of stars, an allusion to the verses from the Book of Revelation that inspire the devotion and iconography associated with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

The composition draws on the great model created by Pietro da Cortona for the altarpiece of the Immaculate Conception now in the church of San Filippo Neri in Perugia; the painter of this small panel borrows the figure of the Virgin, the crescent moon, and the dragon from that work. The success of Cortona’s design—which established itself as a model for countless variations on the same subject throughout the Italian peninsula—is largely due to the spread of prints, particularly the engravings created by François Spierre in the second half of the seventeenth century, which made the Cortona model known even beyond the borders of Umbria, making it available to painters working in various contexts. Compared to most paintings depicting this subject, here the background abandons the usual sky filled with clouds and angelic faces in favor of a sober hilly landscape, with a town perched on a hill rendered with the finest brushstrokes.

A useful comparison for contextualizing the Cortonese figurative tradition within which the artist of this panel operates can be found in the decorations of Palazzo Pitti painted by Pietro da Cortona himself: many of the female faces in the Hall of Jupiter share with the Virgin depicted here the same gentleness, the same way of tilting her head with her eyes closed onto her shoulder, and the same gentle, composed smile.

The octagonal format and the copper support—a smooth, compact surface ideal for meticulous detail—place the work within the flourishing production of small devotional paintings intended for domestic settings and private oratories, which was widespread in the seventeenth century: works of modest size, intended for personal meditation, often replicated from highly successful models such as Cortes’s.