A young woman floats above a landscape, standing on a translucent moon and with a crown of 12 stars. This imagery is based on the New Testament Book of Revelation. In it, Saint John the Evangelist records his vision of the Woman of the Apocalypse, who bears a male child and is threatened by a dragon – the devil.
In the Catholic faith, this woman represents the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. Her hands are clasped in prayer and she looks down in humility to show her protection over mankind. The garden, fountain, temple and ship at the bottom are all symbols normally associated with her and were included in a litany (or prayer) dedicated to the Virgin.
With its companion painting, Saint John on the Island of Patmos, this is one of Velázquez’s earliest known works.
The picture is the same size and of the same date as ‘S. John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos’ (No. 6264). They are amongst the earliest of Velázquez’s works, certainly painted before he moved from Seville to Madrid in 1623, and perhaps as early as 1618.
The two pictures are first recorded in 1800 as being in the Chapter House of the Convent of the Shod Carmelites at Seville. They were bought by Don Manuel López Cepero, Dean of Seville, who sold them in 1809 to Bartholomew Frere, British Minister at Seville. The pictures were placed on loan at the National Gallery in 1946 by his descendants, Mrs. Woodall and the Misses Frere; the ‘S. John’ was acquired in 1956 and ‘The Immaculate Conception’, with the generous aid of the N.A.-C.F. and an anonymous donation, in 1974.
Text extracted from the National Gallery’s Annual Report, ‘The National Gallery: July 1973 – December 1975’.
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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Velázquez painted these two works as companion pieces during his early career in Seville, in around 1618. They were perhaps intended to promote the recent celebrations in the city of a papal decree defending the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin.
We don't know who commissioned The Immaculate Conception and Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos, but they are first recorded in 1800 in the chapter house of the Convent of the Shod Carmelite Order in Seville.
Saint John and the Virgin both appear in the foreground, surrounded by objects identifying who they are, strongly illuminated from the top left. The colours of the Virgin’s clothes are echoed in reverse in Saint John’s, and both paintings demonstrate Velázquez’s skill in conveying a strong contrast between light and shade.
