Virgin and Child
Artist
Jusepe de Ribera
(Spanish, c. 1590-1652, active in Naples)
Date1643
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions43 3/4 x 39 3/4 in. (111.1 x 101 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN334
The unusual image of the Madonna and Child perched on a lunar crescent was of a type (called the Immaculate Virgin) meant to promote the doctrine that Mary was free from original sin. Interestingly, the use of the moon to convey the idea of purity persists in sayings such as "chaste as the moon." The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was especially important to Catholic artists of the 17th century. This image of the Virgin was derived from the vision of Saint John the Evangelist who, in the New Testament Book of Revelation, described a woman "clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet."
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