A CLOSER LOOK
The Art Institute attributes the sculpture to Antonio Maragliano and his workshop. That wording matters: it connects the figure with the master’s practice without claiming that every cut came from Maragliano himself. Genoa’s national museums describe a large workshop whose students spread his sculptural language through later generations.
Mary stands with her arms crossed while her mantle swings outward. A circle of stars surrounds her head, and a small angel appears at the base. These features belong to a long visual tradition for the Immaculate Conception. National Gallery of Art records show the same combination of a standing Virgin, crossed hands, stars, clouds, angels, or a crescent in related works, while individual artists arranged those elements differently.
The sculpture is wood and stands 111.8 centimetres high. Its vertical scale is large enough to meet a viewer bodily, yet the museum record does not specify its original church, altar, procession, paint layers, or installation. A digital image can show the silhouette and carving; it cannot establish the object’s original setting or reproduce how light moves across its depth.
The recorded provenance begins in Italy by 1958, followed by a sale to the dealer Adolph Loewi, Inc. that September and a sale to the Art Institute in 1961. Earlier ownership is not supplied. The museum also records the sculpture in a 1959 Baltimore exhibition on Rococo art, evidence of its modern exhibition history rather than its eighteenth-century use.
