A cornerstone of Marian worship, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception—which holds that Mary was conceived by God free from original sin—first took hold in the Spanish Empire before being established as dogma across the Catholic world in the mid-19th century.

Echoing this belief, depictions of her Assumption into heaven multiplied, from Titian to Rubens, before Mary drew closer to the people, becoming a model for the education of girls.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, feminist artists have sought to emancipate Mary from the expectations imposed on women—ranging from virginity to the ideal of the perfect mother—that her figure has long conveyed