“From the Archives” — The Assumption of Mary Ceiling Painting

The center, and largest, of the three ceiling paintings here at the Basilica of Saint Mary, “The Assumption of Mary,” is a copy of a painting in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, by the 17th- century Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Although Saint Mary’s painting originally may have been on a wall of the church, the image is either a restoration of the earlier picture or a totally new painting installed after the fire that damaged the church in 1929. The artist is presumed to be F. S. Shuman.

There has been debate ever since Murillo painted his depiction of the Blessed Mother: Does it show the Assumption or the Immaculate Conception? The painting contains symbols of both attributes. Mary’s upward glaze, her gesture and the heavenly light illuminating the top of the painting symbolize the Assumption. The angels are holding her aloft on a cloud. Murillo simplified his composition by eliminating several traditional symbols of the Immaculate Conception— the crown of stars or the moon under her feet. She is wearing a dazzling white robe, symbolizing her purity and Immaculate Conception. Her blue mantle symbolizes Mary’s perfect innocence. Blue was the rarest and most costly paint pigment until modern times, and its use pointed to Mary’s great value and her closeness to God and heaven.