The Immaculate Conception
This is a significant example of Claudio Coello’s style and one of his finest representations of the Immaculate Conception. It admirably associates grace and delicate modesty with the triumphal emphasis that characterizes depictions of this subject from Madrid in the second half of the century. Its rich, refined and predominately warm color scheme corresponds to Coello’s most powerful period, free of the earlier dependence on Rizi still visible in the large San Plácido Annunciation from 1668, and of the influence of Carreño that is also noticeable in his 1676 Immaculate Conception at the Musée de Castres. So this canvas is from the artist’s most advanced period, with colors, a model and technique close to other works from his finest and most fully mature period, such as the Magdalene from the Ciempozuelos altarpiece (1682) and the Saint Catherine (1683) at the Wellington Museum in London.
