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MARY, MARY QUITE CONTRARYDate: 03.03.01 Author:James Nestor Mary, Mary Quite Contrary
Design, Compromise and the Virgin Mary
Of
the millions of religious landscapes, the Virgin Mary has been depicted
more times, and with greater variety, than any other subject in western
art. Though for 2000 years her image has been transposed, reversed,
juxtaposed and exploited - ranging from pauper to princess, sex kitten
to sophisticate - one thing about the Virgin Mary has remained
consistent: she has always given us a revealing window into trends and
codes of the culture that produced her.
And by following her development, we follow the design of a religion itself.
The Myth is Formed
Christ's birth was
problematic for early Christians on a number of levels. The act had to
steer far from the "magical" births of classical mythology, but still
be spiritual; the Virgin Mary herself had to be a human with whom
people could identify, but one far elevated from the "sinful, wanton"
female gender.
So early Christians suggested the idea of virgin birth. But that
concept posed different problems of its own. Directly derived from
classical mythology - a belief system from which Christians were
stridently trying to distance themselves - virgin birth seemed just too
pagan. Pythagoras, Plato and Alexander all pledged to be of virgin
birth, a fact that for centuries directed Christian orthodoxy away from
ever considering the "Virgin" Mary to be a virgin.
To solve this dilemma, the church constructed the idea of
"The Annunciation," a concept which allowed the mother of Christ to be
both a human and a virgin - allowing her to escape the "fatal flaw" of
Eve, yet still make her accessible to the masses.
The Icon is Born.
The Virgin Mary as Incestuous
"Thy two
breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the
lilies" (Song of Solomon 4:5) . . . "Thy lips o my spouse, drop as the
honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue…" (Song of Solomon 4:11)
In the centuries previous to Christianity, the union of
marriage was seldom viewed in a favorable light - in most literature
and oral tales, husbands seemed constantly duped by their complaining,
wanton, cuckolding, wives.
Christianity sought to transpose these perceptions.
Portraying marriage as a peaceful spiritual union, early Christian
orthodoxy sought to not feed the fire between the sexes, but instead
offer path out of marital misery. The Christian wife was not to be
petulant and reckless, but accommodating, humble, and always faithful.
And the Virgin Mary was to serve as her guide.
The Virgin Mary becomes all milk and honey.
The Virgin Mary as Pauper
Because the
Christian revolution from the earliest times centered on
egalitarianism, on the universal application of the Gospel, all
Christian icons were based on the decidedly un-Roman traits of
humility, honor and compassion. When Christians experienced famine, the
Virgin Mary grew thin; when epidemics knocked out villages, so the
Virgin Mary grew sick and sallow. She had to remain relevant to the
masses.
So in the early 15th century, when the virtues of St. Francis
revolution swept through Christian orthodoxy, the Virgin Mary naturally
became a Franciscan.
Championing the notion of physical deprivation as a means to get closer
to the Lord, Masaccio here illustrates the Virgin as the principal
model of Franscican humility. Barefooted on the ground, covered in
simple clothes and looking with a dour look towards us, Masaccio
perfectly captures the new mendicant orders of simple ideals shaping
the church - and the culture - of the 1400s.
The Virgin Mary becomes one of us.
The Virgin Mary as Society Girl
The humble, barefooted Franciscan Virgin Mary was short lived in a
fickle society where people preferred their works of art to be a window
to a mystical, heavenly world - not mirror on their pitiable condition.
Plus, the development of a burgeoning, moneyed, middle-class had a hard
time relating to all that dirty, grubbing Franciscan business.
Art in the early days of the Renaissance celebrated the decadence of
the classical past, bringing elements of affluence and modern trends
into religious landscapes at a level not yet seen in history. Per the
patron's request, religious paintings of this era strayed from
documenting the jilted, didactic scenes from the Bible to focusing on
current fashions.
Fra Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Child with Stories of the Life
of St. Anne serves as a perfect example of this artistic shift. From
the modestly clad Franciscan style of just a few decades before, this
Virgin Mary is regally dressed with Romanesque decadence, in the latest
fashion, as she stares at us with tender, flirtatious eyes.
Virgin Mary becomes courtly tart.
The Virgin Mary as Wallflower
In the high-renaissance, religious subjects were soon losing favor with
an increasingly apathetic public. Where once there was a direct and
succinct bifurcation between the very rich and the very poor, the 1500s
brought a new class, the merchants. Now, churches were not the only
institutions to commission paintings - and in effect control the
imagery of religious icons - but independent patrons were growing
increasingly powerful. And their tastes in religious iconography
differed greatly from that of the abstemious church. Oftentimes, the
patron wanted to be the star of the work.
Symbols of status, paintings privately commissioned often
illustrated the patron and his relatives on equal level - sometimes
larger - than the religious subject of the work. The icons in these new
"religious landscapes" were redesigned to be nothing more than
perfunctory decoration, a backdrop that would frame the vainglorious
patrons in a rich and respectable light.
The Virgin Mary becomes gilded decoration.
The Virgin Mary as Saucebox
The Virgin Mary of the mid-1500s not only grew more garishly fashion
conscious, but she also began merging with some patently Roman traits -
the same traits from which the early Christian orthodoxy strived so
adamantly to distance itself. Amalgamating both Roman imagery with
Christian iconography, 16th century Mannerism cast religious subjects
in a confusing group of cultural referents, removing many of the
moralizing attributes they once might have had.
Looking much more like Venus than a Christian icon, this lascivious
Virgin Mary is drawn in soft hues, cast in a god-like proportion in
front of distinctly Roman surroundings. Her long, sensual neck gilds
down to a low-hung dress, her hand softly caressing her breast, fingers
parted, as she looks downwards with a flirtatious stare to the Christ
Child, who lays languishing in her lap.
In 150 years the Virgin Mary had gone from sitting barefooting on the
floor - the embodiment of humility - to sitting in a high thrown, a
gigantic pillar of sexuality and gaudiness.
The Virgin Mary becomes Florentine sex kitten.
The Virgin Mary as Stage Prop
The brash decadence of the Mannerist gave way to the subtle allegory
and sensuous, subtle forms in the 17th century. Because the public was
now aware of the iconic conventions in religious landscapes - the old
masterworks still hung in churches and galleries throughout Europe -
artists were now able to subvert religious landscapes into new forms.
Roles, again, were inverted.
Religious figures no longer invoked public empathy by posing
in modern scenes around common people; rather, common people invoked
religiosity by posing as though they were religious icons. The result
is a kind of defacto return to the religious landscapes created
hundreds of years prior.
This transposition reflected the self-enlightened,
intellectual unorthodoxy and sensual delight in the natural world that
was championed in French literature throughout the 17th century. We no
longer mimic religious icons, religious icons now mimic us. It was a
religion in one's self, devoid of the weighty noose of Christian
orthodoxy.
The Virgin Mary is deconstructed.
The Virgin Mary as Pauper...Again
The centuries that followed the Baroque grew even more abstract,
incorporating the whole of classical mythology, western iconography,
orientalism, and modern ideas into artistic styles so splintered that
little consistency could be found. Religious depictions became few and
far between in the 19th century, and practically ceased after Darwin's
harrowing Origin of the Species all but obliterated the very
foundations upon which Christianity was built.
But one group of painters rekindled the religious landscape,
in a surprisingly sincere fashion. The fact that the church persecuted
them for their actions illustrates the ways in which religious tenets
had again turned inside out.
Like the Franciscans of the 15th century, the Pre-Raphaelites opted for
a pared-down honesty, illustrating their subjects with a plain, simple
moral dignity as a reaction against (again) the pomp and decadence of
the lofty French academic art of the previous decades.
The Virgin Mary goes from rags to riches to rags.
The Virgin Mary of the Future
The controversy over Ofili's Virgin Mary brings up a reoccurring
problem: It is impossible to assess contemporary art in contemporary
times. Only in hindsight can we sift through the murky waters of
history and pick out those pieces that still sparkle in the strainer.
Of course Ofili's created his work to be controversial - what easier
way to get yourself heard above the screaming crowd. Of course many
people publicly denounced it, Giuliani calling it "sick art" - what
easier way to celebrate your "traditional, old fashioned" tastes in art
before a group of voters with Water lilies on their walls.
What allegedly "offended" people was not that this painting was created
out of paint, paper and elephant shit, but that it defaced a "sacred"
icon.
And if it is any consolation to Ofili - or any of the many other artist
who has ever been accused of creating a "blasphemous" Virgin Mary - as
history has clearly shown us, these perceptions too will soon pass.
What will the Virgin Mary look like in the 21st century?
Only the future knows. But don't think you can't influence the process.
Click here to design your own Virgin Mary.
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