The image we see depicted in this detailed if small copper is a Tota Pulchra, an early iconographic forerunner of the Immaculate Conception. This apologetic representation, conceived of as a clear symbolic and visual narrative, became widespread in Europe in the early 16^th century, born of the need to find a definitive formula by which to universalize the purity of the Virgin.

The depiction of, and veneration for, this Marian image in the New World almost exactly coincided with its spreading across the Spanish Peninsula, given it provided the altar/throne binomial with the perfect catalyst for the evangelical project.  As such, and though its iconic composition reached the Viceroyalty already perfectly well-defined, its development subsequently combined the more traditional elements with the inclusion of new or modernizing aspects that would allow the iconographic image to survive well into the 17^th century, existing alongside new versions representing the Immaculate Conception which, by that time, had monopolized the Virginal repertory on the Old Continent.