FIGURE io.i Giambattista Tiepolo. The Immaculate Conception, 1767-69. Oil on canvas. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. All rights reserved © Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. liturgy as early as 1128 and made important The imagery of the Immaculate Conception inroads in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- coalesced in the sixteenth century, and Spanish turies, although it remained highly controversial, artists established its definitive iconography dur- even in the eighteenth century Its prominent ing the early seventeenth century This repre- presence in Aranjuez stemmed from the special sentation merged the early tradition of depicting vigor with which the Franciscan order advocated Mary among symbols of immaculacy with the the Immaculate Conception, as well as the Virgin of the Apocalypse, and Tiepolo drew on dogma's massive popularity in Spain, particularly this conjoined typology for the Aranjuez altar- among its monarchs, including Charles III.1 piece. Symbols of immaculacy—many drawn 70