The painting was one of seven altarpieces commissioned in March 1767 from Tiepolo by King Charles III of Spain for the Church of Saint Pascual in Aranjuez, then under construction.

[1] It represents the Immaculate Conception, a tradition of the Catholic Church stating that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin.

The depiction of the Virgin Mary is done according to traditional Christian iconography, and represents her Immaculate Conception, free from original sin.

Standard iconographic elements include the dove above her, the stars around her head, her position on the crescent moon with a snake crushed under her feet, her hands held together in prayer, and the obelisk on her right.

[14] Tiepolo had painted an earlier version of the Immaculate Conception in 1734 for the Franciscan church of Santa Maria in Araceli in Vicenza.

That version depicted the Virgin Mary as a beautiful young girl in the manner already established by Guido Reni and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo following Pacheco.

The angel is present in an oil sketch executed around the same time, now in the National Gallery of Ireland, considered iconographically the most complex of Tiepolo's depictions of the Immaculate Conception.

[failed verification] Among Tiepolo's most popular works are mythological and religious themes conveying an atmosphere of grandeur and beauty.