1.  The cupola of the private chapel of the Quirinal represents the Almighty meditating the great miracle of the Immaculate Conception, and near him, within the same glory of light, is the Virgin in her white tunic, and in an attitude of adoration.  This was painted about 1610 or 1611, when Pope Paul V. was meditating the promulgation of his famous ordinance.

2.  The great picture, also painted for Paul V., represents the doctors of the Church arguing and consulting their great books for the authorities on the subject of the Conception.[1] Above, the Virgin is seated in glory, arrayed in spotless white, her hands crossed over her bosom, and her eyes turned towards the celestial fountain of light.  Below are six doctors, consulting their books; they are not well characterized, being merely so many ideal heads in a mannered style; but I believe they represent the four Latin Fathers, with St. John Damascene and St. Ildefonso, who were especial defenders of the doctrine.

[Footnote 1:  Petersburg Imp.  Gal.  There is a fine engraving.]

3.  The next in point of date was painted for the Infanta of Spain, which I believe to be the same now in the possession of Lord Ellesmere.  The figure of the Virgin, crowned with the twelve stars, and relieved from a background of golden light, is standing on a crescent sustained by three cherubs beneath; she seems to float between heaven and earth; on either side is a seraph, with hands folded and looks upraised in adoration.  The whole painted in his silvery tone, with such an extreme delicacy and transparency of effect, that it might be styled “a vision of the Immaculate Conception.”

4.  The fourth was painted for the chapel of the Immaculate Conception, in the church of San Biagio, at Forli, and is there still.

* * * * *

Just as the Italian schools of painting were on the decline, the Spanish school of art arose in all its glory, and the “Conception” became, from the popularity of the dogma, not merely an ecclesiastical, but a popular subject.  Not only every church, but almost every private house, contained the effigy either painted or carved, or both, of our Lady “sin peccado concepida;” and when the academy of painting was founded at Seville, in 1660, every candidate for admission had to declare his orthodox belief in the most pure Conception of our Lady.

The finest Spanish “Conception” before the time of Murillo, is by Roelas, who died in 1625; it is in the academy at Seville, and is mentioned by Mr. Ford as “equal to Guido."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Handbook of Spain.  A very fine picture of this subject, by Roelas, was sold out of the Soult Collection.]

One of the most beautiful and characteristic, as well as earliest, examples of this subject I have seen, is a picture in the Esterhazy Gallery at Vienna.  The Virgin is in the first bloom of girlhood; she looks not more than nine or ten years old, with dark hair, Spanish features, and a charming expression of childlike simplicity and devotion.  She stands amid clouds, with her hands joined, and the proper white and blue drapery:  there are no accessories.  This picture is attributed to an obscure painter, Lazaro Tavarone, of whom I can learn nothing more than that he was employed in the Escurial about 1590.