Immaculate Madonna

Ponsonelli presents a vision of the Virgin Mary floating on clouds, one foot placed firmly on the crescent moon, the other on a dragon (symbol of the devil). The iconography represents the Immaculate Madonna, referring to the Catholic doctrine that Mary was born without sin, like her son Jesus. Ponsonelli ramped up the drama by showing Mary’s clothes in tumultuous movement, her wind-whipped drapery a masterly rendering in marble. The foremost sculptor in Genoa in the early 1700s, Ponsonelli worked for patrons all over Europe, and some of his sculptures were reportedly sent to Latin America.