MAELLA, Mariano Salvador de
(b. 1739, Valencia, d. 1819, Madrid)

Immaculate Conception

1781
OIl on canvas, 142 x 74 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

This is a preparatory sketch for the painting of the main altarpiece of the Chapel of Saint Anthony in the church of San Francisco el Grande, Madrid.

The painting reveals a synthesis of the style of the Spanish Golden Age and the new painterly dictates of Neoclassicism, introduced into the Spanish court by Anton Raphael Mengs.