Acislo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco’s Immaculate Conception
2008; American Medical Association; Volume: 10; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Espanhol
10.1001/archfaci.10.5.364
ISSN1538-3660
Autores Tópico(s)Hallucinations in medical conditions
ResumoArchives of Facial Plastic SurgeryVol. 10, No. 5 Free AccessAcislo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco’s Immaculate ConceptionLisa Duffy-ZeballosLisa Duffy-ZeballosSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Sep 2008https://doi.org/10.1001/archfaci.10.5.364AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Acislo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco (1655-1726) was one of the most successful and learned artists of the late Golden Age in Spain. Raised in Cordoba, Palomino originally studied theology and even took minor religious orders before beginning his career as a religious painter. According to his own account, Palomino met fellow Cordoban painter Juan Valdés Leal, who encouraged him to pursue his artistic career and oversaw his training. Palomino completed his artistic education in Madrid and eventually became one of the leading frescoists working in various religious institutions there. However, he is perhaps best known today as a scholar and theorist; his treatise, El museo pictórico y escala óptica offers a defense of painting as a noble and liberal art. The third volume of the treatise Lives of the Eminent Painters and Sculptors is the most famous and most valuable to scholars of Spanish art. This volume contains biographical sketches of prominent Spanish painters and sculptors, many of whom Palomino was personally acquainted with, and in many cases, Palomino's biography is the only account of certain artists' activities. Conversely, his detailed biographies of well-known artists like Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez provide important insights into their artistic activities. Following the death of his wife in 1725, Palomino resumed his religious vocation and was ordained as a priest shortly before his death in 1726.Acislo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco (1655-1726). Immaculate Conception (1695-1720). Oil on canvas, 74 × 49½ in. Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. Museum purchase, Meadows Foundation Funds, MM.80.01.As an artist, Palomino was profoundly influenced by the masters of the Madrid School, particularly the works of Francisco Rizzi, Claudio Coello, and Juan Carreño de Miranda, all of whom were working at the court of King Charles II. Palomino executed a series of paintings on the story of Cupid and Psyche for the Royal Palace of the Alcazar, and following this success he was named court painter, or pintor del rey, in 1688. Palomino executed several important fresco decorations for the royal residences as well as for the church of San Esteban in Salamanca and the chapel of the Ayuntamiento in Madrid. He also executed a number of devotional paintings on canvas, including numerous representations of the Immaculate Conception.The image of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin was perhaps the most ubiquitous devotional representation of the Spanish baroque period. The almost universal popularity of the cult in Spain, bolstered by the active support of the Habsburg monarchs, belies centuries-old theological controversies surrounding the cult of the Immaculate Conception. At issue was the question of whether Mary, like Christ, had been conceived in original sin or later purified in the womb. The Franciscans and Jesuits were the greatest advocates of the doctrine, whereas the Dominicans were its most outspoken detractors. Although these monastic debates continued to frame the discourse on the cult until the 19th century, the Immaculate Conception achieved widespread acceptance in Spain by the end of the baroque era.One of the earliest problems artists faced was how to represent such an abstract theological concept in a single image. The oldest representations of the cult show the Immaculate Conception surrounded by Marian symbols derived from the Old Testament book Song of Songs. These symbols included the “rose among the thorns,” the enclosed garden, the lily, and the “mirror without blemish” as symbolic proofs of the Virgin's immaculacy. However, by the end of the 17th century, it was no longer necessary to display the Virgin surrounded by all of her attributes, and artists began to portray her with only her most representative Marian symbols. In the present painting, Immaculate Conception (Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas), Palomino depicts the Virgin standing amid the clouds surrounded by winged cherubim while putti cavort among the clouds bearing roses, a palm frond, and blue irises (also called “sword lilies”) as symbols of her purity.This depiction conforms to the Spanish iconographical model put forth by the 17th century artist and theorist Francisco Pacheco, who advised artists to depict the Virgin as a young golden-haired girl of about 13 years of age wearing a blue mantle over a white tunic and standing on the crescent moon. However, Palomino did not strictly adhere to Pacheco's recommendations: although he depicted the Virgin with golden hair, she appears older and does not stand on the moon. The overall tonality of the painting is confined to rosy pinks, soft blues and yellows, and white. The pastel palette is repeated in the Virgin's attributes and the various details of her costume, in which white represents purity; blue, sorrow; and red, divine love.Palomino's painting conflates the iconography of the Immaculate Conception with that of another Marian cult, the mystical Apocalyptic Woman cited in Revelation as “clothed in the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1-3). Although Palomino did not depict the Virgin standing on the moon, the sun can be seen at the left behind her, enveloping the Immaculate Conception in its pale golden light. Above her head, the dove of the Holy Spirit descends from the heavens to crown Mary with the starry crown. Although the dove is frequently included in images of the Annunciation, it is rarely depicted in paintings of the Immaculate Conception and was probably intended to evoke parallels between the controversial doctrines of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin and the inviolate dogma of Christ's Incarnation.Although the Sevillian painter Murillo was the greatest interpreter of the theme of the Immaculate Conception, Palomino and his contemporaries in the Madrid School fashioned buoyant and exuberant images of the Immaculate Conception that corresponded to the triumphant spirit of Counter-Reformation Spain. However, in contrast to Sevillian versions of the subject, which showed the Virgin propelled heavenward in a sudden up-rush of clouds, Palomino's Immaculate Conception is decidedly more earthbound. The Virgin mediates between the darker lower portion of the canvas with the angels in the clouds at her feet, and the more ethereal realm inhabited by the Holy Spirit and the high-ranking disembodied angels. Palomino attempts to animate the figure as she lifts her eyes heavenward and raises her hands in a gesture of amazement. The Virgin's rhetorical expression of surprise, her delicate, doll-like features, and the soft pastel tonality of the painting contrast with earlier baroque representations of the subject, reflecting the new courtly style in Madrid at the dawn of the 18th century.ref-qbe80004-1REFERENCEPatton P. The Meadows Museum: A Handbook of Spanish Painting and Sculpture.. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University; 2000:53 Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 10Issue 5Sep 2008 InformationCopyright 2008 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved. Applicable FARS/DFARS Restrictions Apply to Government Use.To cite this article:Lisa Duffy-Zeballos.Acislo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco’s Immaculate Conception.Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.Sep 2008.364-364.http://doi.org/10.1001/archfaci.10.5.364Published in Volume: 10 Issue 5: September 1, 2008PDF download
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