Jusepe de Ribera
The Immaculate Conception

1637
Oil on canvas
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina. Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

The subject is identified by the halo of twelve stars, the "praying hands," and the crescent moon. It is not uncommon for painters to omit the dragon beneath Mary's feet in Immaculate Conception images, but several aspects of the painting are unusual. Above Mary's head Ribera has added the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. And instead of clothing the figure with the sun he puts an image of the sun at some remove on the left.

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Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.