#397 • The Immaculate Conception

This elegant Rococo sketch, still enclosed in the splendid gilded frame of the time, is one of five preparatory works that have come down to us for the large altarpiece made for the Carmine Church in Turin.

 

Painted by the Apulian Corrado Giaquinto, an artist of international prominence, the work is distinguished by monumentality combined in vivid chromaticism and quick, feverish touches of color.

 

The classical iconography of the Immaculate Conception, as described by the Apostle John with the moon under his feet and a crown of twelve stars, overlaps with that of the Assumption, fitting into the debate over the lack of original sin in the Virgin's conception, which ceased only in the mid-19th century