Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli

The essay examines for the first time the Christian symbolism in the Immaculate Conception or Madonna Purissima (1620-1625) of Barbara Longhi of Ravenna (1552-1638). In the Italian sixteenth century, she is the first female painter to concentrate in her oeuvre on sacred devotional painting of Marian iconography. This endeavor reveals her aim to fuse physical motherly love and spiritual devotion. Her religious images reflect the artistic patronage of Ravenna as well as the religious decrees of the Counter-Reformation in Italy. Longhi's Immaculate Conception represents the Virgin Mary (Madonna) as the Woman of the Apocalypse described by Saint John in the Book of Revelation (12:1, 2, and 5). Longhi paints the Madonna emerging from a cloud of light and standing on a crescent moon holding her son, Christ. Rays of light emanate from her being and continue to expand in vortices within a nimbus (mandorla) to a ring of twelve stars crowning her and her son. The Madonna's virginal nature embodied in the divine golden light designates her as "Maria Purissima." The stars forming a celestial crown metaphorically symbolize her immortality and wisdom. In the doctrinal precepts of the Counter-Reformation, the Virgin Mary became honored as the Virgo Sapientissima and Gloriosa, the Queen of Wisdom and Glory, and Regis Coeli, the Queen of Heaven. In her artistic manner, Longhi paved the way for mystical devotion, which would later be interpreted by female painters in the seventeenth century.