MONSTRANCE
The Immaculate Conception by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1632, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception

Francisco de Zurbarán (Spanish, 1598–1664)

1632 · Oil on canvas · Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

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About this painting

Two schoolboys in black kneel at the foot of the sky with their hands joined, and the words they say are painted in the air beside them: Monstra te esse matrem on the one side and Mites fac et castos on the other, lines of the Ave Maris Stella, show yourself a mother, make us meek and chaste. Above them Our Lady stands as a girl, hands joined, eyes lifted, stars about her head. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya says she rests on five cherubs seated on the horns of a moon as transparent as a globe of crystal. Two child angels sit in the clouds with marble tablets from the Song of Songs, QUAE EST ISTA and AURORA CONSURGENS: “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising”. Around her, the museum notes, are the emblems of her litany: the spotless mirror, Jacob's ladder, the gate of heaven and the morning star. Zurbarán painted it in 1632, and the museum calls it, without doubt, the best of the many versions of the theme his brushes produced. The boys ask her for what we may ask with them: show yourself a mother.

Sources: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, 'Immaculate Conception', Francisco de Zurbarán, 065578-000, read 2026-10-10. · Canticle of Canticles 6:9, Douay-Rheims (Challoner); check verbatim against data/bible_drc.js before shipping · Ave Maris Stella, Vespers hymn of the Blessed Virgin (Roman Breviary); inscriptions read from the image

Pray with this every day  ›
The Record
Date 1632
Collection Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
Subject Immaculate Conception
Season Advent
Master 7,025 px
License PD-Art (Google Art Project, MNAC); MNAC prints "Domini públic"
Attribution Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona · 065578-000

The original, as its museum records it

Artist Francisco de Zurbarán
Date 1632
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 252 x 170 cm
Holding Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona · 065578-000

Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.

The file this print is made from

Source Francisco de Zurbarán - Immaculate Conception - Google Art Project.jpg
Master 7,025 px on the long edge
Rights PD-Art (Google Art Project, MNAC); MNAC prints "Domini públic" — the photograph as well as the painting
At a glance
ArtistFrancisco de Zurbarán (Spanish, 1598–1664)
Date1632
MuseumMuseu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
Accession065578-000
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions252 x 170 cm
Sheet sizes16×20 in, 18×24 in, 24×36 in, 32×48 in
Provenance of the file
Held byMuseu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona · 065578-000 the museum’s record
Source fileWikimedia Commons · Francisco de Zurbarán - Immaculate Conception - Google Art Project.jpg
LicencePublic domain
Master4,655 × 7,025 px, the file our printer receives
ChainTaken from Wikimedia Commons; held as our print master.

The sheets

16×20 in sheet 16×20 in · image 13.3×20 in · archival margin · 351 dpi
18×24 in sheet 18×24 in · image 15.9×24 in · archival margin · 293 dpi
24×36 in sheet 24×36 in · image 23.9×36 in · archival margin · 195 dpi
32×48 in sheet 32×48 in · image 31.8×48 in · archival margin · 146 dpi

Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 7,025 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.