“The Immaculate Conception with Saints Joachim and Anne”, Zurbarán, 1638-9, National Galleries of Scotland.
Although the dogma that Our lady was conceived with our original sin was not defined until 1854, in Zurbarán’s Seville it was widely believed and some religious orders were allowed to celebrate it in their liturgy. Images of the Immaculate Conception were in demand and Zurbarán painted several. There was no obvious way of portraying Our Lady as conceived without sin, but by the time of Zurbarán a standard iconography had been developed. It was based on a passage from Revelation long believed to refer to Our Lady. “A great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars”. (Rev 12:1). Usually, Our Lady was shown in the sky and in the landscape below her were the symbolic titles attributed to her in the litanies of the Church’s tradition. In this version Zurbarán includes the twelve stars and the crescent moon. He merely hints at the symbols in the landscape below which is suffused with the same golden light as the sky. It had become common practice to show the donors of the work looking up at Our Lady. But Zurbarán does not show donors. Rather he shows the parents of Our Lady, Joachim and Anne, both of whom were venerated as saints. They are painted in strong colours and stand out again the golden sky. Joseph’s stout neck suggests that he is a working man and you can see by their hands and faces that the couple are older. It is a rather unique family portrait!
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The Catholic Chaplaincy is also a parish of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh (the Parish of St Albert the Great) and all Catholic students and staff are automatically members of this parish.
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