BAROQUE ALTARPIECE OF LA PURÍSIMA

When first entering the Church of La Purísima, one's gaze is immediately drawn to the high altar, where José de Ribera's Immaculate Conception stands out. The contrast created by the altars made of colored marbles against the walls built with Villamayor stone is striking. We find ourselves before a gallery of Italian art, with works by Guido Reni, Lanfranco, and Ribera, among others. The creators of the temple achieved a perfect symbiosis between sculpture, painting, and architecture.

ALTARPIECE STRUCTURE Both the marble structure of the altarpiece and the sculptures of the Calvary presiding over it were made in Naples by the sculptor Cosimo Fanzago. Initially, it was designed for the church of the Convent of Las Úrsulas, although its definitive location in the church of La Purísima surely entailed changes and adaptations to the new space.

It corresponds to the model of an altar attached to the wall. Above a large plinth, wonderfully clad in colored marbles, the grand altarpiece rises. Its composition uses the traditional three-bay system, with the central bay occupied by the large canvas of the Immaculate Conception, while the lateral ones are divided into two sections whose resulting spaces are also occupied by pictorial works. A double order of columns, with red marble shafts and white marble Corinthian capitals, articulates the various sectors of the altarpiece. The attic features a central body with a broken pediment that houses Ribera's Pietà canvas. It is decorated with volutes and cherub heads on whose sides the protagonists of the Calvary are distributed; the Virgin and Saint John in the center, Mary Magdalene and Saint James the Greater at the ends, and, between them, vases with festoons of flowers and fruits. On top of the attic, the white marble Crucified Christ was placed, flanked by two large Monterrey coats of arms from which hang strings of fruit. Presiding over the entire ensemble, within a red-toned marble frame, is the canvas with "God the Father blessing," attributed by some scholars to Lanfranco.

The altar front is decorated with colored marbles which, inlaid on a large white marble slab, draw abstract vegetal and geometric forms. Four splendid, relief Monterrey coats of arms stand out on the green marble plinth flanking the altar table. They demonstrate the great mastery the artist achieved in the intarsia technique. Also by this same author is the monumental tabernacle of lapis lazuli, malachite, jaspers, and gilded bronzes located on the altarpiece's altar table.

On each side of the high altar, and in direct relation to it, are the kneeling statues of the counts; that of Don Manuel de Zúñiga on the Gospel side and Leonor de Guzmán on the Epistle side. They were made of Carrara marble by Giuliano Finelli.

THE CANVAS OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION This large canvas, five meters high by three and a half meters wide, is part of the altarpiece of the Augustinian Nuns of Salamanca and was painted in oil by José de Ribera in 1635. It bears his signature: "Jusepe Ribera, español, valenciano F.1635". In this work, Ribera abandons tenebrism and creates a luminous painting, dominated by wonderful golden tones, a symbol of divinity. It is a version of great importance in Immaculist iconography, to the extent of having been considered the most important Marian representation of the 17th century.

The canvas occupies the central bay of the altarpiece. In this work, Ribera adopts the already established iconography for representing the Immaculate Conception, but breaks with the traditional Spanish static model represented by the Immaculates of Zurbarán or Velázquez. Ribera creates a Virgin in a dynamic disposition, ascending towards heaven, carried by angels, with her ample draperies in flight. The Virgin is depicted in youthful age, dressed in a white tunic and a blue mantle, symbols respectively of purity and eternity, crowned with twelve stars and with the crescent moon at her feet. Her hands are crossed over her chest as a sign of acceptance, and she raises her gaze upwards. The Eternal Father, located in the upper left part, surrounded by a glory of angels, extends his right hand as if to bless her and sends the dove of the Holy Spirit, responsible for Mary's conception. She is surrounded by cherubs carrying allegories of the litanies.

PAINTINGS OF THE LATERAL BAYS In the right bay, from top to bottom, are located the “Embrace at the Golden Gate,” a symbol of the Immaculate Conception of Mary when Saint Joachim and Saint Anne meet outside the city, and Saint John the Baptist, by Guido Reni. In the left bay, we see the canvas of Saint Joseph and that of Saint Augustine and the angel, with no unanimity regarding the authorship of the latter, being considered by some as a direct work by Rubens while for others it would be a workshop piece.

THE PIETÀ The niche crowning the altarpiece houses the canvas of The Pietà, a work designed for this space and signed by Ribera in 1634. The tenebrist technique with which it was executed contrasts with the luminosity of the Immaculate Conception canvas. In this canvas, the artist shows us a sorrowful, mourning Mary, holding the body of the dead Christ which seems to slip through her hands. The painter has arranged Christ's body diagonally, his knees bending to adapt his figure to the frame. The face of the Virgin and the body of Christ stand out against the dark background, illuminated by a direct light.