The Inmaculate Conception with Jesuits

The work of Francisco de Aguilera bears witness to me high quality of his pictorial language and to his technically innovative contrasting of light and shade. This work has gone under various titles, including The Immaculate One Worshipped by Saints, The Immaculate Conception Receiving the Homage of Various Jesuit Saints, or simply The Immaculate One. The composition is symmetrical and the focal point is the illuminated face of the Virgin, who is wearing a white tunic and a blue cloak that covers and protects Her spirit. Twelve stars, alluding to Saint John’s Apocalypse, surround Her head. The Company of Jesus was extremely devoted to the Immaculate Conception and, in this work, the jesuits kneeling at the feet of the Virgin make up two important groups, one headed by Saint Ignatius Loyola, who is wearing a chasuble embroidered with gold thread, and the other by Saint Francis Xavier, wearing a pluvial and holding a sheaf of white lilies. Other Jesuit saints are shown on the left, including Francis Borja, Stanislaw Kostka, and, in front of them, Luis de Gonzaga and the three priests martyred in Japan, John de Goto, James Kisai and Paul Mikique. Saint Francis Regis looks toward the viewer, who is probably meant to be the author or sponsor of the work. The Archangel Michael appears on the left-hand side of the work, also looking straight at the viewer, while, at the other end, we can see Saint Cajetan, who balances the composition. The artist, who creates a heavenly atmosphere in the work by using soft, radiant light and pale colors, signed himself Johannes Francº Aguilera, Fac M.DCC.XX. This is one of the few known works by this author. It may have hung in some college, house or church belonging to the Jesuit Order, later being transferred to the Saint Hippolytus hospital. In 1877, it became part of the collection of the old San Carlos Academy, passing thence to the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery, and later being transferred to the MUNAL in the year 2000.