Sentence: The moon in Lodovico Cigoli’s Immacolata fresco (1610–12) in the Pauline Chapel, S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, departs radically from tradition, appearing not as a perfect crescent but as a crater-pocked sphere, just as Cigoli’s friend Galileo had observed it through his telescope and had published it in 1610. This study focuses on the reception of Cigoli’s and Galileo’s moon in light of Christian lunar symbolism and astronomical theory. At issue are the theological implications of a maculate moon within an image of the Immaculate Virgin in a papal chapel and how the Church accommodated the new cosmology to theological traditions. (Source: www.tandfonline.com)

Meaning: Spotted or stained

How To Remember?

“Immaculate” refers to being clean and spotless, without any blemish. “Maculate” is just the opposite, although not as commonly used.

Additionally, “Mac-” of “Maculate” can remind you McD! Imagine yourself gorging on one of those McD burgers and staining your white shirt with yellow sauce. Your shirt would be maculate!

Synonyms?

Dirty; Grubby; Damaged.

Antonyms?

Clean; Spotless; Pristine; Unsoiled; Unstained; Unsullied; Speckless.

For more words, click here!

Picture Credit: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

[In the picture above, you can see the maculate surface of the earth’s moon!]

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