User:A.J.A./Tohu&Bohu/Madonna (art)
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Madonna is a medieval Italian term for a noble or otherwise important woman. In art this word is used for the works depicting the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The word has also been adopted by the English and other European languages.
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[edit] Eastern
The depiction of Mary is a favorite theme in Orthodox icons, often expressing theological themes.
The Panagia or Platytera shows a pregnant Mary, her pregnancy shown not by a literalistic swollen belly but by a circular icon of the infant Christ over her heart. "Platytera" refers to breadth or wideness -- her womb is said to be "wider than the heavens" because it contained God even though the heavens cannot.
The Eleousa (Greek έλεος—"pity, regret, compassion") - the Loving Kindness - shows Mary's cheek touching her son's, with his hand often reaching around her neck to pull closer. The most famous example is the Theotokos of Vladimir.
After the end of the Middle Ages a new comprehension of the holy images has arised. The emotional and expressive manner of drawing has given the birth to the great number of masterpieces. The tradition of painting of Madonna has got a brand new impulse in the Renaissance.
[edit] Western
Medieval representations use tropes stressing the aspect of Mary the artist wishes to focus on. The Madonna Enthroned pictures Mary on a throne, crowned, and/or surrounded by angels signifying her position in Catholic theology as "Queen of Heaven". A portrayal of Mary in an Earthly or historical setting is a Madonna of Humility.[1] The Madonna Lactans is a special subset of the Madonna of Humility, showing Mary either breastfeeding the Christ-child or preparing to. These images began in the 1340s, when some preachers had already begun urging upper-class women to nurse their own infants rather than hire a wet nurse. [2]
such as Seat of Wisdom (with the infant Jesus on Mary's lap)
The Renaissance has given birth to the new traditions of painting in Western European Art. In aggregate, Renaissance itself proclaimed the return to the traditions of painting and sculpture of antique Greece. This was mainly a secular, often non-canonical art though usually addressing religious subjects. The Renaissance artists allowed themselves to be more emotional and humanistic, even more utilitarian, thereby creating bright masterpieces close to the hearts of their contemporaries. The art of this period is characterized with more anatomically correct proportions, sincere human emotions, color and light.
The great number of painters of the Renaissance paid attention to the Biblical subjects in general, including Madonna. Such titans as Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael were among them. Many painters have been invited to the Vatican by Popes to decorate churches with religious frescos and paintings.
Though the Renaissance painters covered almost all the life of the Virgin, there were some subjects especially favorite among them. They were The Virgin and the Child and Pietà. Traditionally, Madonna is depicted expressing compassion, kind and love. The tenderness and caress of the ordinary mother to her beloved child, the epiphany of the young Christ, the antiquated, light, colorful surroundings make the spectator sympathize with the characters. The despair of the mother that holds the body of her crucified son, mourning his fate and nevertheless the light of hope in her eyes are inspirational, live and impressive.
[edit] Modern
[[Image:Edvard_Munch_-_Madonna_(1894-1895).jpg|thumb|left|350px|Madonna by Edvard Munch; oil on canvas]] Edvard Munch's Madonna is a highly unusual representation of Mary. In this painting she is young, perhaps a teenager, and is sensualized, if not eroticized, by her twisting, expressive pose. She stretches her arms behind herself and arches her back, increasing the viewer's consciousness of her physical body. Yet even in this unusual pose, she embodies some of the key elements of traditional representations of the Virgin: she has a quietness and a calm confidence about her. Her eyes are closed, expressing modesty, but she is simultaneously lit from above; her body is seen, in fact, twisting toward the light so as to catch more of it, even while she does not face it with her eyes. These elements suggest aspects of conventional representations of the Annunciation.
[edit] Paintings and Art
A Madonna is an artistic or iconic depiction of Mary, especially with the infant Jesus. A black Madonna is a statue or painting of Mary in which she is depicted as having black skin.
- Madonna and Child (also known as the Stroclet Madonna or Stroganoff Madonna), a painting by Italian Renaissance artist Duccio di Buoninsegna, from around the year 1300.
- The Black Madonna of Częstochowa (Czarna Madonna or Matka Boska Częstochowska in Polish) icon, which was, according to legend, painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on a cypress table top from the house of the Holy Family.
- Madonna and Child with Flowers, otherwise known as the Benois Madonna, a painting that could be one of two Madonnas started by Leonardo da Vinci, as he remarked himself, in October 1478.
- Madonna of the Steps, a relief done by Michelangelo.
- Madonna, a painting by Edvard Munch, painted in five versions between 1894 and 1895.
- The Madonna of Port Lligat, the name of two paintings by Salvador Dalí created in 1949 and 1950.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Pierce, James Smith (1998). From Abacus to Zeus: A Handbook of Art History (revised fifth edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, pp. 128. ISBN 0137830289.
- ^ Slatkin, Wendy (1997). Women Artists in History: Fron Antiquity to the Present (third edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, pp. 50-51. ISBN 0134328736.
[edit] External links
- Virgin Mary at Olga's Gallery
- The Madonna in Art, available at Project Gutenberg. by Estelle M. Hurll (First printed 1897)
