Immaculata - Votice (Central Bohemia) - Statues of Religious Figures on Waymarking.com

Depicted sandstone statue of Immaculata (one of expressions of Virgin Mary) can be found on the top of the pillar, which is the central element of the Baroque statuary with saints located in Komenského námestí (Comenius Square) in Votice.

The Baroque Marian column with sandstone statues of the four saints is the work of sculptor Michal Jan Josef Brokoff from 1715. The Immaculate statue by sculptors Pavel Jiricka and Josef Jiricka from Horice was added to a special central column in 1877.

The sculptural group stands freely in the middle of the northern half of the Comenius square. Total height is about 7 m, the statues are sandstone with granite pedestal. The pedestal of the sculptural group is situated on a square staircase with bevelled corners. Its lower part is also square, flanked by octagonal columns at the corners, which culminate in a head on which one statue is placed. The significantly higher central column carries a sculpture of Immaculata, facing towards south. On the SW corner stands St. Barbara, on NW St. Rosalia, on NE St. Sebastian, on SE St. Rochus. All 4 sculptures are made roughly in life size, oriented diagonally to the sculptural group. Saints are depicted in the traditional sense, with characteristic attributes.

Source: excerpted and translated from National Heritage Institute portal.

Virgin Mary was a first-century BC Galilean Jewish woman of Nazareth, and the mother of Jesus, according to the New Testament and the Quran. The gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament and the Quran describe Mary as a virgin. In Matthew and Luke she is betrothed to Joseph.

The Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, the conception of the Virgin Mary without any stain ("Immacula" in Latin) of original sin. It is one of the four dogmas in Roman Catholic Mariology. Under this aspect Mary is sometimes called the "Immaculata" (the Immaculate One), particularly in artistic contexts.

The definitive iconography for the Immaculate Conception, drawing on the emblem tradition, seems to have been finally established by the master and then father-in-law of Diego Velázquez, the painter and theorist Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644). Pacheco's iconography influenced other Spanish artists such as Bartolome Murillo, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco Zurbaran, who each produced a number of artistic masterpieces based on the use of these same symbols.

The popularity of this particular representation of The Immaculate Conception spread across the rest of Europe, and has since remained the best known artistic depiction of the concept: in a heavenly realm, moments after her creation, the spirit of Mary (in the form of a young woman) looks up in awe at (or bows her head to) God. The moon is under her feet and a halo of twelve stars surround her head, possibly a reference to "a woman clothed with the sun" from Revelation 12:1-2. Additional imagery may include clouds, a golden light, and cherubs. In some paintings the cherubim are holding lilies and roses, flowers often associated with Mary.

[excerpted from wiki]