Pereda's Interpretation Of The Virgin Mary In The Book Of Revelation

The Immaculate Conception is Antonio de Pereda’s artistic interpretation of the Virgin Mary in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne. The subject of this art piece is the conception of Virgin Mary as describe by John the Evangelist in The Book of Revelation. The painter portrays the Catholic Church’s belief of the sinless birth of Virgin Mary though a variety of painterly devices— composition, color, lighting, movement, mood, and balance. This oil on canvas is characteristic of the Baroque period which defined the art of the 17th century. In this time, the style was influenced and encouraged by the Catholic Church as a tool to spread their teachings. As one of the leading artist of this moment, de Pereda’s depiction serves as the foundation image of the figure of The Immaculate …show more content…
The composition— the way in which an artist chooses to arrange the elements in his painting— is key for Pereda’s pictorial representation of Virgin Mary. Like the story of The Immaculate Conception, Pereda’s painting focal point is Mary. He translate words into visual art. As in the book of revelation, Mary is illustrated standing on a crescent moon wearing a crown with twelve stars. The stars are said to symbolize the 12 tribes of Israel. While the moon is typically seen as symbol of death and of mortality. The fact that Mary is standing over the moon suggest that she is free from death and bursting with life; the victory of her son, Jesus Christ, has caused this effect on her. On each side of the crown we find two angels holding and placing the crown on The Madonna’s head. At the bottom, floating in the clouds we see eight angels with no visible bodies, just heads. However, the images of the angels do not compete with the picture of Mary, the angels linger in