Our Lady of Immaculate Conception with the Child

Our Lady of Immaculate Conception is represented standing on a crescent moon and cradling the child, on a plinth in the form of a globe. It is very similar to other depictions of the Virgin Mary produced in Goa in the 17th and 18th centuries with her priestly posture, frontal pose and hair falling to her shoulders. This image can be identified with sculptures from Seville.
Both the virgin and child are adorned with crowns of worked gold with rose-cut diamonds set in silver. In themselves these crowns alone are rare and exceptional works of Goan jewellery of the late 17th century, a remarkable craft of which very few examples have survived.
The devotion to Our Lady of Immaculate Conception, promoted from the end of the 15th century, was given prominence during the Counter-Reformation, especially within the family circle, which is why so many Goan images, mostly of ivory, were exported all over Europe. Equally renowned with local variations, were the images made in Northern India and Ceylon.
In this image, a number of orange fabric blossoms can be seen at the base that came from the floral crowns worn by brides from Nova Goa.