Mariano Salvador Maella (Valencia, 1739 - Madrid, 1819) Immaculate Conception Oil on canvas. 79 x 49 cm. This is most certainly a preparatory painting, finished in detail, for the large canvas for the altar of the chapel of San Antonio in the church of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid. Another preparatory work, 'The Immaculate Conception' (P007602) by Maella, circa 1787, is on display in the Museo del Prado in room 89. With the exception of the dimensions (142 x 74 cm), everything else is identical. Consequently we have referred to the description given by the Prado on its website: 'The composition is configured in three interdependent registers in order to highlight the main image of the painting. The upper space is occupied by the Eternal Father, surrounded by angels who appear to support him, accentuating his marked foreshortening and constituting a kind of canopy of figures in the manner of a determining apex of Divine Grace. Below, the Virgin, dressed in the traditional attire - a blue mantle billowing behind her and a white tunic - raises her eyes to heaven and crosses her hands over her breast. The angels in the lower area carry some traditional symbolic elements such as lilies, a mirror and a rose, and partly conceal a terrestrial sphere on which an ophidian glides, almost segmented by the emerging horn of a lunar crescent. It bites into the apple of original sin and seems to be strangely chased away by an angel in the lower right corner, who holds the necklace of the royal order in his hands. Maella perfectly combines the two tonal ranges, relying on cold or warm use of colour, depending which is most useful for his particular vision, while distributing the details by harmonising them through successions of parallel or zigzag diagonals, in order to obtain the impression of dynamism, underlined by the attitudes of all the figures, except for the Virgin, who provides the calm note in the midst of a formulation that is little less than centrifugal on the whole.' Reference bibliography: - Museo del Prado (n.d.). 'The Immaculate Conception'. https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/la-inmaculada-concepcion/61db14cb-c75f-4904-8e15-9eed097917e2