Category: The Madonna

Lat. Dormitio, Pausatio, Transitus, Assumptio, B. Virginis. Ital. Il Transito di Maria. Il Sonno della Beata Wirgine. L’ Assunzione. Fr. La Mort de la Vierge. L’Assomption. Ger. Das Absterben der Maria. Maria Himmelfahrt. (August 13, 15.) We approach the closing scenes. Of all the representations consecrated to the glory of the Virgin, none have been […]

Mary dwelt in the house of John upon Mount Sion, looking for the fulfilment of the promise of deliverance ; and she spent her days in visiting those places which had been hallowed by the baptism, the sufferings, the burial, and resurrection of her divine Son, but more particularly the tomb wherein he was laid. […]

THE ANGEL ANNOUNCING TO MARY HER APPROACHING DEATH has been rarely treated. In general, Mary is seated or standing, and the angel kneels before her, bearing the starry palm brought from Paradise. In the frescoes at Orvieto, and in the bas-relief of Orcagna, on the beautiful shrine in Or San Michele, at Florence, the angel […]

THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN is styled in Byzantine and old Italian Art the Sleep of the Virgin, Il Sonno della Madonna; for it was an old superstition, subsequently rejected as heretical, that she did not really die after the manner of common mortals, only fell asleep till her resurrection. Therefore, perhaps, it is, that […]

THE APOSTLES CARRY THE BODY OF THE VIRGIN TO THE TOMB. This is a very uncommon subject. There is a most beautiful example by Taddeo Bartolo (Siena, Palazzo Pubblico) full of profound religious feeling. There is a small engraving by Bonasone, in a series of the Life of the Virgin, apparently after Parmigiano, in which […]

Ital. La Nozze di Cana. Fr. Les Noces de Cana. Ger. Die Hochzeit zu Cana. After his temptation and baptism, the first manifestation of the divine mission and miraculous power of Jesus was at the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee ; and those who had devoted themselves to the especial glorification of the Virgin-mother […]

After the marriage at Cana in Galilee, which may be regarded as the commencement of the miraculous mission of our Lord, we do not hear anything of his Mother, the Virgin, till the time approached when he was to close his ministry by his death. She is not once referred to by name in the […]

LO SPASIMO. “O what avails me now that honor high, To have conceived of God, and. that salute, Hail, highly favored among women blest ! While I to sorrows am no less advanced, And fears as eminent, above the lot Of other women by the birth I bore.” “This is my favored lot, My exaltation […]

“Verum stabas, optima Mater, juxta crucem Filii tui, non solum corpore, sed mentis constantia.” This great subject belongs more particularly to the Life of Christ. It is, I observe, always omitted in a series of the Life of the Virgin, unless it be the Rosary, in which the ” Vigil of the Virgin by the […]

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS and the DEPOSITION are two separate themes. In the first, according to the antique formula, the Virgin should stand ; for here, as in the Crucifixion, she must be associated with the principal action, and not, by the excess of her grief, disabled from taking her part in it. In […]