● On view now — 212 Baroque Painting and Sculpture
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · verified August 2026
FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception maintains that the Virgin Mary was conceived free from sin, therefore ready to be the pure vessel for Christ’s birth. The Immaculate Conception enjoyed intense devotion in Spain during the 1600s, although it was only accepted as official doctrine in 1854. The abstract subject required artists to develop appropriate imagery. The crescent moon, for example, comes from the New Testament vision of Saint John the Evangelist (Revelation 12:1) of “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet.”
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Guido Reni — The Immaculate Conception
Girolamo da Carpi — The Apparition of the Virgin
Juan de Valdés Leal — The Assumption of the Virgin
Sir Anthony van Dyck — The Virgin as Intercessor
Luca Giordano — The Annunciation
Guido Reni|Valentine Green|Rupert Green|Carl Ernst Christoph
Giovanni Battista Pittoni (Italian, 1687–1767) — Saints Pres
Peter Paul Rubens — The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalyps
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta — The Virgin Appearing to the Gu
Domenico Maria Canuti (Italian, 1620–1684) — Madonna of the 
Anonymous, Spanish, 17th century — Coronation of the Virgin
Cornelis Galle I|Theodoor Galle|Bernardo Castello — The Virg
