Today is celebrated by the Catholic Church as the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. It is the mark of Mary’s conception, set nine months before the Nativity of Mary, celebrated on 8 September. It counts as one of the most important holidays and feasts celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church. Religion continues to be a source of inspiration for artists, with exhibitions like the Met’s Heavenly Bodies and the Bechtler MoMA’s Wrestling the Angel making it of renewed interest. It’s a muse as old as time itself. Amanda Rowan’s imagining of the Immaculate Conception is a little racier than the story told in the Bible…
