ARTWORKS

An Allegory of the Immaculate Conception

Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574)

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

An Allegory of the Immaculate Conception
An Allegory of the Immaculate Conception

Image credit: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

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Vasari delighted in the complexity of the iconography and design of his celebrated altarpiece of 1540 for the Altoviti chapel in SS Apostoli, Florence. This painting is a small-scale, autograph version. The Virgin Mary is shown as an agent of Salvation, triumphing over Satan and sinfulness represented by Eve, according to the Latin inscriptions carried by angels. Adam and Eve are bound to the Tree of Knowledge, round which the serpent (in female form) is wound; Old Testament prophets and kings are also bound to the Tree, in this gloomy stage of mankind before Salvation, while John the Baptist proclaims the coming of Christ.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Oxford

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Title

An Allegory of the Immaculate Conception

Date

c. 1540

Medium

oil on panel

Measurements

H 57 x W 41 cm

Accession number

WA1962.26

Acquisition method

Purchased, 1962

Work type

Painting

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Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Beaumont Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 2PH England

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Artist or maker

Giorgio Vasari

1511–1574

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