The Immaculate Conception
Historical Context
Tiepolo's Immaculate Conception from 1767-69, in the Prado, was one of his final works, created during his last years in Madrid as painter to King Charles III. The painting was commissioned for the church of San Pascual at Aranjuez, and Tiepolo's altarpieces were later replaced by works in the fashionable Neoclassical style of Anton Raphael Mengs. The Immaculate Conception represents the last magnificent flowering of the Venetian Rococo tradition that Tiepolo embodied before the triumph of Neoclassicism.
Technical Analysis
Tiepolo's luminous palette of azure, white, and rose creates a vision of celestial beauty characteristic of his late devotional paintings. The ascending Virgin is surrounded by angels and clouds rendered with the fluid, light-filled technique that represents the culmination of the Venetian coloristic tradition.
Look Closer
- ◆The Immaculate Conception shows the Virgin surrounded by angelic hosts — Tiepolo transforms this doctrinal subject into a spectacular vision of heavenly light and billowing drapery.
