The Virgin of Carmel

Moretto da Brescia's Virgin of Carmel depicts the Madonna wearing or presenting the Carmelite scapular — the small piece of brown cloth whose wearing was promised by the Virgin to Simon Stock as a protection for the soul. The Carmelite order's deep Marian devotion made this subject particularly important for their churches and confraternities, and the promise of the scapular — that those who wore it would be released from purgatory on the Saturday after their death — gave the image urgent devotional significance. Moretto's altarpiece served the Carmelite church in Brescia, a commission that required him to engage with the specific iconographic and theological conventions of the Carmelite Marian tradition.

Moretto's cool, silvery palette creates an appropriately celestial atmosphere for the Marian apparition, with careful attention to the liturgical details of the Carmelite habit and scapular.