ART AND DEVOTION
The fullness of Faith Caroline Farey on a picture of Mary that includes all three stages of salvation history
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ou will have seen many statues of the Blessed Virgin, very often carrying the Christ child, and there are almost as many paintings. This one is by an unknown 15th century Netherlandish painter who is skilled in the style of the great Flemish artist, Jan van Eyck. We know that in that period, so steeped in a Catholic, sacramental world view, every detail has significance to remind us of the ‘great things’ God has done for us in the history of our salvation. The greatest paintings, from the point of view of a fullness of faith, will include all three stages of salvation history: from the preparations and prefigurations of ultimate salvation found in the Old Testament, the fulfilment of those in Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit bringing that fulfilment to the ends of the earth, to the churches in each of our towns. This is one of those paintings. To gain a preliminary understanding of the artist’s mind in depicting this stabat mater, the mother, standing here in her scarlet robe with her son, Jesus, let us begin by looking at the background. What the museum calls a ‘flamboyant Gothic niche’, we can see is thoroughly ecclesial, not domestic as it is often depicted, nor a garden setting. In this painting we are given the architecture of a small chapel with stone niches, statues, a canopy and the floral stonework of a chancel arch, that is, the archway that leads into the sanctuary, the holy place of God. It is here that Mary, the new ‘holy place’ of God, is in her true home, the Church, the house of God and, on earth, in the local church. This is exactly what is written in gold embroidery and white pearls on a green velvet canopy. ‘DOMVS DEI EST ET PORTA C[O]ELI’. The words
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are those of Jacob after his vision of the ladder reaching to heaven: ‘This is [none other than] the house of God and [this is] the gate of heaven.’ (Genesis 28:17, my italics). The canopy and its proclamation are ‘tied’ to the stonework with green ribbons and thus have a living connection with the church building. They are also directly over Mary’s head and thus speak also of her. To visibly confirm this double proclamation, the blue sky of the heavens can be seen through the church architecture as though through a stone-screened doorway and a cloth of heavenly blue, richly embroidered in gold, hangs down from the canopy. Behind the Virgin’s head we can see the gold design flowing around her hair like a halo or even a crown. Then notice on the left-hand side, that this glorious cloth drapes over a seat, or altar, before it continues down to the ground where it becomes the very carpet for her feet. On the step under the Virgin’s feet, carved in the stone, are more words from the Old Testament which ultimately point also to the Blessed Virgin: IPSA EST [MVLIER] QVAM PR[A] EPARAVIT DOM[INV]S FILIO D[OMI]NI MEI ‘Let her be [the woman] whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son.’ (Genesis 24:44). The words are those of a servant of Abraham who was sent to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac. The woman is Rebekah, of whom her sisters say, ‘may our sister be the mother of thousands of ten thousands’ (Gen 24:61). These words are fulfilled by Mary, ‘appointed’ as mother of the Son of God, and also by the Church as mother and bride, with thousands of faithful as her children.
Returning to the intricate stonework, the choice of the figures, presented as four stone statues, gives us the depth of the story portrayed here, beginning with Moses who is represented in the upper statue on the left. We know this is Moses from the rays of light that are recorded as ‘shining forth’ from his face, that came to be portrayed like bull’s horns. When Moses came down the mountain with the two tablets of stone ‘the skin of his face shone’ (Ex 34:29). Moses received the decalogue, the ‘ten words’ from God, according to which the chosen people of Israel were to live until the definitive Word of God became flesh. The statue on the upper right is named as the prophet Isaiah who is pointing down to the young virgin mother with the forefinger of his left hand, that is, to the virgin who will conceive and bear a son (Isaiah 7:14) ‘and his name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God’ (Is 9:6). The two lower statues complete the story surrounding the central scene. They are personifications of the Church on the left and the Synagogue on the right. The lady ‘Synagogue’ holds the two tablets of the decalogue in one hand and a staff, signifying authority, in the other. The staff most probably has a budding top, suggestive of the rod of Aaron and his God-given authority for the house of Israel. She is portrayed blindfolded and stooped as she stumbles away from the vibrant and living figures of Mary and her son Jesus. The ‘veil’ over her eyes is reminiscent of the veiled faces of the people of the old covenant that St Paul speaks about to the Corinthians saying “…when they read the old testament that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away … when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed.’ (2 Cor 3: 14-16).
SUMMER 2021
