Madrid school, circle of CARREÑO MIRANDA; early 18th century."Purísima".Oil on canvas. Re-coloured.

Madrid school, circle of CARREÑO MIRANDA; early 18th century.
"Purísima".
Oil on canvas. Re-coloured.
It presents repainting and restorations.
Measurements: 63,5 x 44,5 cm.
We see in this work a representation of the Immaculate perfectly framed within the Spanish 17th century, marked at stylistic and iconographic level follows the models established in the baroque, especially those established by the artist Juan Carreño Miranda in his work of the Purísima, located in the convent of the discalzas. We see Mary dressed in white and blue (symbols of purity and the concepts of truth and eternity, respectively), surrounded by standing child angels. Some of the angels carry symbols of the litanies, such as the lilies and the palm. The definitive icnographic image of the Immaculate Conception took shape in the 16th century, apparently in Spain. Following a Valencian tradition, the Jesuit Father Alberro had a vision and described it to the painter Juan de Juanes so that he could depict it as faithfully as possible. It is an evolved iconographic concept, sometimes associated with the theme of the Coronation of the Virgin.
The Madrid school emerged around the court of first Philip IV and then Charles II, and developed throughout the 17th century. Analysts of this school have insisted on considering its development as a result of the binding power of the court; what is truly decisive is not the place of birth of the different artists, but the fact that they were educated and worked around and for a nobiliary and religious clientele based close to royalty. This allowed and encouraged a stylistic unity, even though there were the logical divergences due to the personalities of the members. The origins of the Madrid school are linked to the accession to the throne of Philip IV, a monarch who made Madrid an artistic centre for the first time. This was an awakening of the nationalist conscience as it allowed a liberation from the previous Italianate moulds and a leap from the last echoes of Mannerism to Tenebrism. This was the first step taken by the school, which gradually progressed towards a more autochthonous Baroque language linked to the political, religious and cultural conceptions of the Habsburg monarchy, before dying out with the first outbreaks of Rococo in the work of the last of its representatives, A. Palomino. The techniques most commonly used by these painters were oil and fresco. Stylistically, the starting point was naturalism with a notable capacity for synthesis, leading in due course to the allegorical and formal complexity characteristic of the decorative Baroque. These artists showed a great concern for the study of light and colour, as we can see here, initially emphasising the interplay between extreme tones characteristic of tenebrism, which were later replaced by a more exalted and luminous colouring. They received and assimilated Italian, Flemish and Velázquez influences. The clientele determined the fact that the subject matter was reduced almost exclusively to portraits and religious paintings.