Virgins and Mothers

Since ancient times Mediterranean culture has been saturated with matriarchal symbols. Most important within the Spanish tradition of such imagery was the notion of the Immaculate Conception, which during the Counter-Reformation became an official dogma of the Catholic faith, thanks in large part to the Catholic Church in Spain. The significance of the cult of the Virgin Mary grew out of anxieties regarding the moral purity of a maiden's virginity contrasted with the love of the mother, who, to become one, had first to be sullied. This conflict could only be resolved through the ideal of a pure mother, and accordingly the popular repercussions of the Immaculate Conception were wide and profound. There was hardly a single Spanish painter throughout the 17th century who did not address this theme, and it became a fundamental part of the artistic heritage in the modern era, even as the process of secularization ran its course. Its trace survives even in a manifestly atheist painter like Picasso, as well as in many other 20th-century Spanish artists, most notably Salvador Dalí.

Top of Page

Above, left to right:
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682), The Virgin of the Rosary, ca. 1650–55. Oil on canvas, 164 x 110 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), Madonna of Port Lligat (first version), 1949. Oil on canvas, 49.5 x 38.3 cm. Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ira Haupt