Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional Search Ir al contenido principal

Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
Visit Collection Exhibitions Activities Education Search
  • Visit
  • Collection
  • Exhibitions
  • Activities
  • Education

Thyssen - Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
©
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
El Greco and Jorge Manuel Theotokópoulos

The Immaculate Conception

ca. 1608 - 1614
Oil on canvas.
108 x 82 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
170
(
1930.29
)
ROOM 11
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
The Immaculate Conception entered the Collection in 1929. It was previously in the collection of Marczell von Nemes in Budapest. According to Heinemann the oldest known reference to the canvas locates it in a private collection in Cadiz. From there it entered the Madrid collection of Miguel Borondo, that of the Marquis of Casa Torres in 1902, the Marquis of Vega-Inclán, and that of Luis de Navas in Madrid in 1908, before it passed to Hungary. The canvas was first published and illustrated in 1906 and appeared in all the catalogues of the Collection since that of the Munich exhibition of 1930. In the early literature it was described as an Assumption, an error corrected by Mayer in 1911.

The painting has been compared to two others on this subject by the artist, of which the earlier is The Immaculate Conception watched by Saint John the Evangelist, painted for the church of San Román in Toledo. Dated to around 1580–85, in that work El Greco depicted a tall, elegant Virgin in the sky framed by musical angels and resting on cherubim. In the lower zone with the figure of Saint John, the artist included a landscape in which the traditional symbols of the Virgin become additional elements in the view for the first time. The second version, which is much later and closer to the present one, is dated to between 1608 and 1613 and is known as the Oballe Immaculate Conception after the chapel for which it was painted. In that work the artist re-interpreted the subject, placing greater emphasis on the cloud of glory and the angels and cherubim around the Virgin, and as a result creating a much more ethereal effect than in earlier versions. Gudiol suggested that the present canvas might have been a preliminary idea for the Oballe chapel version. Having studied these various versions, however, Álvarez Lopera concluded that the present canvas is a later re-thinking of the San Román composition, painted with greater compositional dynamism and clarity regarding the work’s doctrinal message.

With regard to the execution of the painting, the first author to suggest that it may have involved the participation of El Greco’s son Jorge Manuel was Soehner who noted a difference in quality between the figures and the landscape, attributing the latter to Jorge Manuel. Wethey compared this canvas to the Oballe Immaculate Conceptionand consequently catalogued it as having workshop participation. Cossío emphasised the difference in the handling of the background and figures, as did Álvarez Lopera, who attributed it to El Greco with the collaboration of Jorge Manuel.

Mar Borobia
17th Centurys. XVI - Pintura españolaPaintingOilcanvas
Listen
Download image Print page

Products and publications

Catalogue Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Old Painting (English)

Catalogue Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Old Painting (English)

80.00 € 25.00 €

Poster Richard Estes: People's Flower

Poster Richard Estes: People's Flower

12.50 €

The Impressionists and Photography. Exhibition catalogue. English Hard Cover

The Impressionists and Photography. Exhibition catalogue. English Hard Cover

38.00 € 36.10 €

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Catalogue  V1 (Spanish)

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Catalogue V1 (Spanish)

65.00 € 25.00 €

Visit online shop

More from the collection

El Greco  (Doménikos Theotokópoulos)
El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos)
The Annunciation
ca. 1596 - 1600
El Greco  (Doménikos Theotokópoulos)
El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos)
Christ with the Cross
ca. 1587 - 1596
El Greco  (Doménikos Theotokópoulos)
El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos)
The Annunciation
ca. 1576
Juan de Flandes
Juan de Flandes
The Lamentation over the dead Christ
ca. 1500
  • Private and/or didactic use
  • Commercial use
Private and/or didactic use
The Immaculate Conception. La Inmaculada Concepción, c. 1608-1614
The Immaculate Conception
El Greco and Jorge Manuel Theotokópoulos

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes, and other non-commercial uses.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial or advertising use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

Non-commercial use is understood as the use of the images in a context where no profit, monetary or commercial, is generated, directly or indirectly.

Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorization of the Fundación Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use:

Terms of use

  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified, or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
  • The reproduction of a detail or part of the work may only be made with the prior written authorization of the Fundación. In this case, the credit line must include the following mention: “detail”.
  • Any total or partial reproduction of the images authorized by the Fundación must be accompanied by the following mention: Author's name. Title, Date © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
  • The user will send to the Museum Photo Library of the Fundación one (1) free copy of the edition, publication or reproduction to the following address: Archivo Fotográfico, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Download image
Commercial use
The Immaculate Conception. La Inmaculada Concepción, c. 1608-1614
The Immaculate Conception
El Greco and Jorge Manuel Theotokópoulos

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Terms of Use

The Photographic Archive of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from the author or copyright holder known to the Fundacion in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

Download image
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional

Navegación secundaria (EN)

  • #Thyssenmultimedia
  • Press
  • Corporate events
  • Tourism
  • Join our team
  • Newsletter
Instagram
Facebook
X
Youtube
TikTok
iVoox
LinkedIn

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza would like to thanks for the collaboration of:

Fundación Mutua Madrileña Master Card Comunidad de Madrid
©2025 Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

Menú al pie (EN)

  • Legal terms and use of images
  • Public tenders
  • Transparency site
  • Accessibility and quality
  • Sustainability & 2030 Agenda
  • Contact
Ministry of Culture España es cultura | Spain is culture. The website promoting Spanish culture Paisaje de la Luz | Paseo del Prado y Buen Retiro. Paisaje de las Artes y las Ciencias
Certificación de Conformidad con el Esquema Nacional de Seguridad. Categoría Media. RD 311/2022