The Immaculate Conception - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696 - 1770) December 8

“Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words. Image and word illuminate each other.” (CCC 1160)

The Immaculate Conception - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (c. 1767)

The Immaculate Conception is one of four Marian Dogma’s of the Catholic Church.  A dogma is a principle that is considered by the Church to be an infallible divine revelation, a truth of the Church.  The other three Marian dogma’s are:  Mary’s divine motherhood Mary’s perpetual virginity, and Mary’s assumption into heaven.

The Immaculate Conception means that Mary was conceived without original sin or its stain – “immaculate” means without stain.  Original sin is the deprivation of sanctifying grace. Mary was preserved from original sin by God’s grace from the first instant of her existence, at the moment of her conception.

The Immaculate Conception - Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1628)

The symbols represented in the paintings of the Immaculate Conception are taken from the reference to Mary in Revelation 12:1, “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”  Sometimes there will be a dragon beneath Mary’s feet in reference to the dragon of Revelation 12:4 that “stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, that when she should be delivered, he might devour her son.”  Angels are usually in attendance, the moon may be crescent, and her hands are pressed together in prayer.

This oil on canvas by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was one of seven altarpieces commissioned by King Charles III of Spain for the Church of Saint Pascual in Arnjuez. In Tiepolo's Immaculate Conception all of the identifiers are represented. Mary is surrounded by angels, crowned with a circle of stars, she stands on a crescent moon, her hands are connected in prayer and the glow of the sun is her backdrop.  Here she is trampling a snake which represents her victory over the devil.   

Luke 1:28 

The Catholic Church bases this dogma on the statement made by the Angel Gabriel when he greets Mary saying “Hail full of grace!  The Lord is with you.”  

Revelation 12: 1

"And a great sign appeared in heaven:  A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." 

Revelation 12: 3 - 4 

"Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems.  Its tail swept away a third of the starts in the sky and hurled them down to the earth.  Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth."  

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Picture Source - Public Domain

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