represented as a child, walking, it is the return from Egypt that is
pictured.
The =Holy Family=. _Ital._ La Sacra Famiglia, La Sacra Conversazione.
_Fr._ La Sainte Famille.
After the return to Nazareth, until Jesus is twelve years old no event
is recorded of the life of the Virgin or her Son. But under the title
of Holy Family there are an endless variety of pictures representing
the imaginary life of these exalted ones.
The simplest form is that of two figures, the Virgin and Child;
frequently she is nursing the babe, sometimes she fondles him, pressing
his cheek to hers, or they sport with a rose, an apple, or a bird,
these mystic symbols being lightly used as mere playthings by the
artists. Sometimes one or more attendant angels appear or the Infant
slumbers on His mother’s knee. Sometimes Mary is represented watching
over him, “pondering in her heart” the great destiny of her Child.
Where there are three figures, the third is generally St. John,
although sometimes it is St. Joseph. Sometimes St. John and his mother,
St. Elizabeth—the two mothers and the two sons—are represented. More
rarely, four figures include St. Joseph and St. John. Five figures
include all who have been named, and sometimes Zacharias makes the
sixth.
Many of these pictures bear such names as _La Vierge aux Cerises_, _La
Vierge à la Diadème_, _La Vierge à l’Oreiller Verd_, _Le Ménage du
Menuisier_, _Le Raboteur_, etc.
The introduction of persons who could not have been contemporary, such
as St. Francis or St. Catherine, makes the group ideal and devotional.
The =Dispute in the Temple=. _Ital._ La Disputa del Tempio. _Fr._ Jésus
au milieu des Docteurs.
This subject is a scene of great importance in the life of the
Redeemer, but it is quite as often made one of the series from the life
of the Virgin.
The =Death of Joseph=. _Ital._ La Morte di San Giuseppe. _Fr._ La Mort
de St. Joseph. _Ger._ Josefs Tod.
Some chronologers place the death of Joseph in the eighteenth year of
the life of our Saviour, and others in his twenty-seventh year, when,
as they assert, Joseph was one hundred and eleven years old.
Joseph’s popularity as a patron saint of power dates from the fifteenth
century. A custom had come about of invoking him as mediator to obtain
a blessed and peaceful end, and he became in a certain way the patron
saint of death-beds.
Late in the sixteenth century the death of St. Joseph is represented as
a separate subject in art, and became a popular subject in the churches
and convents of Augustine canons and Carmelite friars whose patron
saint he was, and also in family chapels consecrated to the memory of
the dead.
The =Marriage at Cana, in Galilee=. _Ital._ La Nozze di Cana. _Fr._ Les
Noces de Cana. _Ger._ Die Hochzeit zu Cana.
There is an old Greek tradition that the Marriage at Cana, which has
often been represented in art, was that of John the Evangelist and
Mary Magdalene, and that immediately after the wedding feast St. John
and Mary separated and devoted themselves to an austere and chaste
religious life, spent solely in the service of Christ.
In the =Passion of our Lord=, certain women who attended upon Christ
during His ministry are represented as always near the Virgin, and
sustaining her with their tenderness and sympathy. The Gospels mention
three by name: Mary Magdalene; Mary, the wife of Cleophas; and Mary,
the mother of James and John. Martha, the sister of Mary Magdalene, is
also included. These women, with the Virgin, form the group of five
female figures that is usually introduced in the scriptural scenes from
the Life of Christ.
The =Procession to Calvary= (_Ital. Il Portamento della Croce_), and
the =Crucifixion= are included in the Rosary as two of the mystical
Sorrows. It was in the Via Dolorosa near the summit of the hill that
the Virgin-mother and her women companions are said to have placed
themselves, and where Mary in her anguish, seeing her divine Son,
bleeding from the scourge, and sinking under His cross, fell fainting
to the earth. This incident is called in French _Notre Dame du Spasme_,
or _du Pâmoison_; in Italian _La Madonna dello Spasimo_, or _Il Pianto
di Maria_ and becomes one of the mournful festivals of Passion Week.
In the many celebrated representations of this scene, she is sometimes
portrayed sinking to the earth, upheld by the women or St. John;
sometimes she stands with clasped hands in dumb and motionless agony;
sometimes she stretches out her arms to her Son who goes on His
sorrowful way.
In the =Crucifixion= treated as a _mystery_ Mary stands alone on
the right of the Cross and St. John on the left. She looks up with
an expression of mingled sorrow and faith or bows her head in sad
submissiveness.
When the Crucifixion is treated as an _historical event_ the Virgin
is represented in a fainting attitude, sustained in the arms of the
two Marys, assisted sometimes but not always by St. John; while Mary
Magdalene is seen kneeling at the foot of the cross or with arms
clasped around it.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
THE CRUCIFIXION.—PERUGINO
(Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, Florence.)]
The =Descent from the Cross= and the =Deposition= are two separate
subjects in art. In the first the Virgin should stand. In the old
legend it is said, that when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus drew out
the nails that fastened the hands of our Saviour to the cross, St. John
concealed them from His mother. Then Nicodemus took out those which
fastened His feet, and Joseph of Arimathea supported the body, and the
head and arms of our Lord hung over his shoulder. The sorrowing mother
took the bleeding hands in hers and kissed them tenderly, and then,
borne down by the weight of her woe, she sank to the ground, mourning
her Son.
The =Deposition= is that moment which succeeds the Descent from the
Cross, when the dead form of Christ is deposed or laid upon the ground,
resting on the lap of His mother, and lamented by St. John, Mary
Magdalene, and others.
The =Entombment= follows and when treated historically the
Virgin-mother is always introduced, although less conspicuously;
either she faints, or stands by with streaming eyes and clasped hands,
while the beloved Son is laid in the tomb. Then in fulfilment of the
last command of his dying Master, John the Evangelist brought to his
own house the Mother to whom he was in future to be as a son. This
beautiful subject appears first in art in the seventeenth century.
The =Apparition of Christ to His Mother=. There is a very ancient
tradition (mentioned by St. Ambrose in the fourth century, as being
then generally accepted by Christians) that Christ, after His return
from Hades, visited His mother before appearing to Mary Magdalene in
the garden.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
THE SAVIOUR APPEARS TO MARY MAGDALENE—“NOLI ME TANGERE.”—LORENZO DI
CREDI
(Uffizi, Florence.)]
The story is thus related in Mrs. Jameson’s _Legends of the Madonna_:
“Mary, when all was ‘finished,’ retired to her chamber, and remained
alone with her grief—not wailing, not repining, not hopeless, but
waiting for the fulfilment of the promise. Open before her lay the
volume of the prophecies; and she prayed earnestly, and she said, ‘Thou
didst promise, O my most dear Son! that thou wouldst rise again on the
third day. Before yesterday was the day of darkness and bitterness,
and, behold, this is the third day. Return then to me thy Mother: O
my Son, tarry not, but come!’ And while thus she prayed, lo! a bright
company of angels, who entered waving their palms and radiant with joy;
and they surrounded her, kneeling and singing the triumphant Easter
hymn, _Regina Cœli lætare, Alleluia_. And then came Christ, partly
clothed in a white garment, having in His left hand the standard with
the cross, as one just returned from the nether world, and victorious
over the powers of sin and death. And with Him came the patriarchs and
prophets, whose long-imprisoned spirits He had released from Hades. All
these knelt before the Virgin, and saluted her, and blessed her, and
thanked her, because through her had come their deliverance. But, for
all this, the Mother was not comforted till she had heard the voice of
her Son. Then He, raising His hand in benediction, spoke, and said, ‘I
salute thee, O my Mother!’ and she, weeping tears of joy, responded,
‘Is it thou indeed, my most dear Son?’ and she fell upon His neck, and
He embraced her tenderly, and showed her the wounds He had received
for sinful men. Then He bid her be comforted and weep no more, for the
pain of death had passed away, and the gates of hell had not prevailed
against Him. And she thanked Him meekly on her knees, for that He had
been pleased to bring redemption to man, and to make her the humble
instrument of His great mercy. And they sat and talked together, until
He took leave of her to return to the garden, and to show Himself to
Mary Magdalene, who, next to His glorious Mother, had most need of
consolation!”
This beautiful myth of the early ages has only been pictured as a
matter-of-fact scene in art. The Virgin kneels; the Saviour, with His
standard, stands before her; and generally Adam and Eve, the authors
of the fall, or Abraham and David, the progenitors of Christ and the
Virgin, are introduced, as the delivered patriarchs.
The =Ascension=, though one of the “Glorious Mysteries,” was also the
seventh and last of the sorrows of the Virgin, who was then left alone
on earth. All the old legends record her being present at this time
and saying, as she followed with uplifted eyes the soaring figure of
Christ, “My son, remember me when Thou comest to Thy kingdom! leave me
not long after Thee, my Son!”
The =Descent of the Holy Ghost= is a strictly scriptural subject. It
has been said that Mary, in her character of the divine Mother of
Wisdom, did not need any accession of intellectual light, but that the
Holy Spirit was sent to her as the Comforter.
When Mary is present she is usually placed either in front or in
the centre on a raised seat and often holds a book (as the _Mater
Sapientiæ_).
The =Death and Assumption of the Virgin=. _Lat._ Dormitio, Pausatio,
Transitus, Assumptio, B. Virginis. _Ital._ L’Assunzione, Il sonno della
Beata Vergine, Il transito di Maria. _Fr._ L’Assomption, La Mort de la
Vierge. _Ger._ Das Absterben der Mariä, Mariä Himmelfahrt.
No subject has been more popular, nor more frequently represented in
art than the Death and Assumption of the Virgin. The assumption was
indeed the manifest expression of a dogma of faith—the glorification of
the Virgin in the body as well as in the spirit, and as such it appears
in all the edifices dedicated to her.
The two subjects are often combined. The death scene is portrayed below
(_Il transito di Maria_), and the taking up into heaven of the body and
soul of the Virgin Mary—the assumption—is given above.
It is related in the legend that when the time came for Mary to die,
the apostles (who were scattered in various parts of the world) were
all assembled by a miraculous power and brought to the door of Mary’s
dwelling. When Mary saw them she blessed them and thanked the Lord,
then kneeling down they prayed together, and after that she laid
herself down in her bed prepared to die. About the third hour of the
night a great sound smote on their ears, the chamber became filled with
a heavenly fragrance, and Christ Himself appeared, followed by angels,
patriarchs, and prophets, who surrounded the bed of the Virgin singing
hymns of joy. And Jesus said to His mother, “Arise, my beloved, mine
elect! come with me from Lebanon, mine espoused! receive the crown that
is destined for thee!” And Mary replying, said: “My heart is ready; for
it was written of me that I should do Thy will.” Then all the angels
and blessed spirits who were with Jesus began to sing and rejoice. And
the soul of Mary departed from her body and in the arms of her Son
together they arose into heaven. The apostles gazing after her, said:
“O most prudent Virgin, remember us when thou comest to thy glory,” and
the angels who received her into heaven sang, “Who is this that cometh
up from the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved? She is fairer than all
the daughters of Jerusalem.”
There was but one absent among the apostles and when he came in haste
soon after, he could not believe in the resurrection of the Virgin. It
was this same Thomas who had doubted the resurrection of Christ. At
his desire the tomb was opened before him and in it he saw lilies and
roses. Then looking up in astonishment to heaven, he beheld the body of
the Virgin, radiant in a glory of light ascending slowly towards the
celestial regions.
It is related that in pity for his lack of faith she flung down to him
her girdle—the same _sacratissima cintola_ which is still preserved in
the Cathedral of Prato.
The “angel of death,” usually supposed to be Gabriel, but more
correctly Michael, sometimes offers her a taper—it being customary to
place a taper in the hands of one who is dying.
The mystic =Incoronata= or =Coronation=, which represents the triumph
of the Church, is distinguished by the presence not only of angels
and patriarchs, but by fathers and doctors of the Church and martyrs
and saints. It is a dramatic and historical event when it comes last
in a series of the Life of the Virgin, where her death-bed or tomb is
portrayed or the apostles and sorrowing women are introduced.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] See Appendix.
X.—DEVOTIONAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY
In the most ancient examples, the maternity—the motherhood of the
Virgin is not the paramount idea. She is represented without symbols,
and veiled, occupying an inferior position on one side of her divine
Son, with St. John the Baptist or St. Peter on the other.
Later, when the worship of the Virgin spread from the East and she
was represented alone, without her Son, the apostles and saints who
surrounded her taking secondary positions, she symbolised not only the
divine Mother of Christ, but the second Eve, the mother of all the
world, the Virgin of Virgins.
When she wears a crown over her veil or holds a sceptre in her hand she
is the Queen of Heaven (_Regina Cœli_).
Attended by adoring angels, she is the Queen of Angels (_Regina
Angelorum_).
Weeping or holding the crown of thorns she is Our Lady of Sorrow
(_Mater Dolorosa_).
When she is merely veiled, with folded hands and a face of glorious
beauty and sweetness, she is the Madonna, the Blessed Virgin, the
_Santa Maria Vergine_.
It was in the days of chivalry that the title of Our Lady—_Notre Dame,
La Madonna, Unsere Liebe Frau_—was first given to the Virgin.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.—FILIPPO LIPPI
(Academy, Florence.)]
The =Coronation of the Virgin=. (_Lat._ Coronatio Beatæ Mariæ Virginis.
_Ital._ L’Incoronata, Maria Coronata dal divin suo Figlio. _Fr._
La Couronnement de la Sainte Vierge. _Ger._ Die Krönung Maria). In
the earliest examples, Christ, with His mother seated on the same
throne, and on His right hand, places the crown upon her head. Only
the two figures are shown. Sometimes the Father looks down, and the
Holy Ghost (as a dove) hovers between them. Later examples place the
Virgin between the Father and Son, both in human form; each holds the
crown in one hand, and places it on her head, while the Holy Spirit
hovers above. Again, the Virgin is portrayed kneeling at the feet of
Christ, who places the crown on her head; rejoicing angels are seen
and paradise is disclosed beyond. Sometimes the whole army of blessed
spirits, patriarchs, and martyrs are witnesses to this solemn and
glorious ceremony.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
THE MADONNA CROWNED—BOTTICELLI
(Uffizi, Florence.)]
When not more than five or six saints are introduced, they are usually
the patron saints of the locality or community.
Those pictures where the Madonna is holding her Child, while angels
place a crown upon her head, are not Coronations in the accepted sense,
but an acknowledgment of and tribute to the Virgin-mother of Christ,
and Queen of Heaven (_Mater Christi_, _Regina Cœli_).
The =Virgin of Mercy=.[6] Our Lady of Succour. _Ital._ La Madonna di
Misericordia. _Fr._ Notre Dame de Miséricorde. _Ger._ Mariä Mutter des
Erbarmens.
Here she appears as intercessor, and in old pictures of the Day of
Judgment she is seated by the side of Christ, or sometimes a little
lower, but always on His right hand. She is usually seated, while the
Baptist, who is generally placed opposite to her on the left of Christ,
always stands or kneels.
As the Madonna of Mercy she rarely appears without the Child in her
arms, her motherhood typifying her sympathy with all suffering humanity.
The =Mater Dolorosa=. _Ital._ La Madre di Dolore, L’Addolorata. _Fr._
Notre Dame de Pitié, La Vierge de Douleur. _Ger._ Die Schmerzhafte
Mutter.
There are three distinct representations of the Madonna in this
character. As =Mater Dolorosa= she is represented alone, either seated
or standing, and sometimes only the head or a half-length figure of her
is given. She is overcome with sorrow, her features are stricken with
grief, and tears gush from her mournful eyes. Often a sword pierces her
bosom—sometimes _seven_ swords, in allusion to the _seven sorrows_.
In the =Stabat Mater= the position of the Virgin is invariably on the
right of the crucifix—that of St. John on the left, the crucifix here
being the mystical emblem of our belief in a crucified Christ. In this
subject the Virgin is a wholly ideal figure, personifying the Church
as well as the mother of Christ. Her head is bowed in resignation,
her figure is shrouded in a violet or dark blue mantle. Sometimes she
stands with outstretched arms and upward gaze, her faith struggling
with her anguish.
=La Pietà= is the third, and consists only of the Virgin with her dead
Son in her arms or at her feet; sometimes sorrowing angels are about,
but otherwise the Mother is alone with her dead.
Another version, less poetically touching, represents the dead form
half-emerging from the tomb, held in the arms of the sorrowing Mother,
with St. John the Evangelist on the other side.
=Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.= _Lat._ Regina sine labe
originale concepta. _Ital._ La Madonna Purissima. _Fr._ La Conception
de la Vierge Marie. _Ger._ Der Geheimniss der Unbefleckten Empfängniss
Mariä.
This picture is not found in the early schools of art, but became one
of the most popular subjects in the seventeenth century, after Paul
V. had instituted the office for the commemoration of the Immaculate
Conception in 1615 and in 1617 forbade any one teaching or preaching
the opposite belief.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
THE MADONNA ENTHRONED.—FILIPPINO LIPPI
(Uffizi, Florence.)]
This doctrine had been gaining ground from the eleventh century and had
been agitated for several centuries before that, but there was always
strong opposition to making it an article of belief. Even St. Bernard,
in spite of his devotion to the Virgin, disapproved of incorporating
it as a church office. It was a question of theological dispute for
hundreds of years. In Spain it was the “darling dogma of the Spanish
Church,” and forms the subject of some of the most beautiful pictures
of the Spanish artists.
It was not until 1854 that the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of
God was made an article of faith in the Catholic Church by Pope Pius IX.
In pictures of the Immaculate Conception, the Virgin is usually
represented as the woman in the Apocalypse, “clothed with the sun,
having the moon under her feet,” and on her head a crown of twelve
stars. She is a maiden of twelve or thirteen years, with eyes reverent
and sweet; her hair is golden, and her features beautiful. The sun is
a glory of light around her, the moon with the horns pointing downward
lies under her feet, and the twelve stars form a crown over her head.
Her robe is of spotless white and her mantle blue. Around her are
cherubim bearing roses, lilies, and palms, and below at her feet is the
head of the bruised and defeated dragon.
Murillo, who achieved his greatest fame as painter of the Conception,
sometimes makes the crescent moon a full moon, or, when a crescent, the
horns point upward. He usually omits the starry crown, but is careful
to follow the rules laid down as to the colours of the drapery.
=The Virgin and Child Enthroned.= _Lat._ Sancta Dei Genitrix, Virgo
Deipara. _Ital._ La Santissima Vergine, Madre di Dio. _Fr._ La Sainte
Vierge, Mère de Dieu. _Ger._ Die Heilige Mutter Gottes.
The many and beautiful pictures of this subject are purely devotional
in character and in them Mary is exalted as the Mother of God.
When she is represented with a book in her hand she is the _Virgo
Sapientissima_, the Most Wise Virgin, or the _Mater Sapientiæ_, the
Mother of Wisdom, and the book is the Book of Wisdom.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.—FILIPPO LIPPI
(Pitti Palace, Florence.)]
The artists hardly ever varied from the established rule as to the
colours in which the Virgin-mother should be arrayed, and she nearly
always has the red tunic with the blue mantle—as said before, red the
colour of love and religious fervour, blue the colour of constancy and
truth. In pictures of the Venetian and German schools she is often
represented magnificently attired, her robe thickly broidered with gold
and pearls, and her crown studded with jewels.
In the early pictures the divine Child is always clothed, and not until
the beginning of the fifteenth century is he represented partially,
then wholly, undraped.
The _Madonna Enthroned_ is often attended by various saints, and
the grouping of these saints has always some especial religious
significance, as: _St. Peter_ and _St. Paul_ appear with the Virgin
as chiefs of the apostles and founders of the Church; when _St. John
the Baptist_ and _St. John the Evangelist_ attend the Virgin Enthroned
the first expresses regeneration by the rite of baptism, the second
regeneration by faith.
_The Fathers of the Church_ appear as interpreters and defenders of the
mystery of the Incarnation; _St. Jerome_ and _St. Catherine_ as patron
saints of theological learning; _St. Catherine_ and _St. Barbara_
signify active and contemplative life; _St. Nicholas_ and _St. George_
with _St. Catherine_ are prominent in the Venetian pictures, and all
three were venerated as especial protectors of Venice.
_St. George_ and _St. Christopher_ stand by the throne of the Virgin of
Succour as protectors and deliverers in danger.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
THE MADONNA DEL GRAN-DUCA.—RAPHAEL
(Pitti Palace, Florence.)]
Many of these Madonna pictures were votive offerings for public or
private mercies, and frequently bear the name of those who offered
them: as Raphael’s _Madonna di Foligno_ presented by Sigismund Conti
of Foligno.
Wherever the Virgin and Child appear attended by _St. Sebastian_ and
_St. Roch_ the picture has been a votive offering against the plague.
=Mater Amabilis.= _Ital._ La Madonna col Bambino, La Madonna col
celeste suo Figlio. _Fr._ La Vierge et l’Enfant Jésus. _Ger._ Maria mit
dem Kind.
This treatment of the Virgin and Child makes the strongest appeal to
the sympathies, for in it she is represented as the _Mother_ only. As
Mrs. Jameson expresses it: “Here Raphael shone supreme: the simplicity;
the tenderness, the halo of purity and virginal dignity which he threw
around the _Mater Amabilis_, have never been surpassed—in his best
pictures never equalled. The _Madonna del Gran-Duca_ [Pitti, Florence]
and the _Madonna Tempi_ [Munich] are perhaps the most remarkable for
simplicity.”