Immaculate conception

Raised to the status of patron saint of the kingdom by Dom João IV, Our Lady of the Conception began to enjoy a widespread cult of worship from the second half of the 17th century onwards. The Immaculate Conception in the museum’s collection is already an 18th-century sculpture in the round, full-figure and erudite, and fully illustrating the spatialising characteristics of the image in the sinuous lines and curves of its drapery, with numerous pleats and folds, in contrapposto, to which the richness of the polychrome estofado covering and a rigorous iconography lend a particular verism. The graceful agitation of the right leg, the long, wavy hair falling in ringlets over the shoulders and back, the cloak with its ends tucked under the forearms, the capricious pleats, enlivened by folds with fluttering hems, give the image a surprising dynamism. The clothes with their sgraffito background make the gold more visible in a profuse decoration of stylised floral motifs, whilst the carving of the heads and hands, with their separate fingers, results in delicate portrayals of the flesh.
The sculpture stands on a spherical base with a coiled serpent and carved angels’ heads – in a clear evocation of the Church’s victory over the Protestant heresy – whilst attention is drawn to the pointed ends of the sharply-angled lunar crescent.