Immaculate Conception
by MAELLA, Mariano Salvador de, OIl on canvas, 142 x 74 cm
This is a preparatory sketch for the painting of the main altarpiece of the Chapel of Saint Anthony in the church of San Francisco el Grande, Madrid.
The painting reveals a synthesis of the style of the Spanish Golden Age and the new painterly dictates of Neoclassicism, introduced into the Spanish court by Anton Raphael Mengs.