My Title Picture

It's been over a week since I started my blog, and I haven't explained my title graphic yet!

It is a painting by Giovanni Battista Tieplo titled "The Immaculate Conception." It was painted in 1769, a year before the artist's death. I first saw it on the cover of the Fall 2002 issue of The Latin Mass Magazine. The magazine offers the following description of the painting.

The iconography of this painting is within the tradition accepted from the 17th century, chiefly in those paintings in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is pictured as an adult woman. She is represented as the new Eve coming to redeem the consequences of the former's sin. Her head is surrounded by a circular crown of stars - following the description of the Woman in the Apocalypse - while the Holy Ghost is shown as a dove, hovering in the air. Mary's figure dominates the scene, while retaining moderation and simplicity, surrounded by Cherubim who bestow mobility to the composition.

I chose this painting due to its beauty, and because it is the 150 anniversary year of the proclamation of the doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception.