Our Lady, Ark of the New Covenant

The Madonna del Parto by Piero della Francesca, c. 1455-60. Museo della Madonna del Parto, Monterchi, Tuscany.

By Caroline Shaw

This beautiful fresco is a wonderful painting to study during Advent, since it is one of the rare depictions of Our Lady in late pregnancy, calm and still as she waits with patient anticipation for the great moment of the birth of Our Lord Jesus. The painting is instantly recognisable, and has over the centuries been the focus of great devotion. It has also given rise to a number of interpretations, all of which complement each other and combine to give the work a rich and deep theological significance.

The first elements to notice, as with all pain tings by Piero, are the combination of exquisite colours – the soft green of the left-hand angel’s cloak, contrasted with the feathery pink of his wing and the bold red of his hose; the simple yet daring composition, and the indescribable aura of mystery with which the artist imbued every one of his images. Our Lady is silent, dignified and modest. She looks down, deep in contemplation, and every expectant first-time mother will recognise the slightly wistful expression on her face – the question ‘what lies ahead?’ is never very far from her mind.

For Our Lady, there is a far more profound knowledge of the magnitude of what is to come, not only for her personally as a mother, but for the whole World. Piero captures beautifully the supernatural knowledge that Our Lady has been granted, of the import and weight of her situation. She whom God has chosen to give redemption to mankind stands here: a seemingly ordinary young woman in a plain blue dress and yet, at the same time, the Mother of God flanked by angels. Her downward glance contains a sadness and solemnity which cannot fail to remind us of the Passion, while she also expresses the innocence and naturalness of a young expectant mother in the final few weeks of pregnancy, with her left hand protectively touching her stomach, and her right hand on her hip suggesting physical fatigue.

The two angels with their impassive gaze are mirror images of each other. They hold back the heavy red silk curtains that enclose the tent in which Our Lady stands. What does this tent represent? Firstly we could observe that it is a royal structure, lined with white fur, and embroidered with golden pomegranate flowers, which are a symbol of fertility, abundance and marriage, and also a symbol of Our Lord’s Passion. The canopy stands firmly in the medieval tradition of the ‘ cloth of estate’ , which was held aloft by angels to honour Our Lady as Queen of Heaven.

The appearance of the structure in this painting is also reminiscent of the Old Testament tent-sanctuary that God instructed Moses in the book of Exodus to build. It can therefore be understood as a representation of the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant. At Our Lady’s fiat, God entered into a new covenant with mankind, and as Mother of God, with the Christ-child in her womb, Mary represents the vessel, or Ark, of the new alliance. This is echoed in the ancient description of Mary as Foedoris Arca. By placing Our Lady as the Ark of the New Alliance within the Old Testament tabernacle, Piero vividly brings the Old and New Testament promises of God together, while simultaneously honouring Our Lady as Queen of Heaven and powerful intercessor.

The tent can furthermore be seen as a representation of the Catholic Church, with Our Lady standing at its doorway. The idea of Mary as Janua Coeli or ‘Gate of Heaven’, was a common theme in the iconography of the time. Our Lady represents a two-way door, by which the divine enters the human, and the human opens to the divine. She stands at the threshold of the tent-church, indicating with her right hand the child in her womb, and inviting us to come in and worship Him. She is thus the ecclesial figure, the gateway through whom all the faithful must enter.

When it was first painted, the fresco would certainly have had a strong Eucharistic significance, since it was placed behind the High Altar of Santa Maria in Silvis, a small, rural church in the hill town of Monterchi. The tent in the painting, shaped like a tabernacle, and the angels solemnly drawing back the curtains, would have called to mind the moment during the Mass when the priest parts the curtains of the actual tabernacle and opens the door to reveal Our Lord Jesus, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. Our Lady’s solid, almost sculptural body undoubtedly also itself evokes the idea of a tabernacle, in which reposes the Son of God.

At the same time, the simplicity of the figure of Our Lad y, her freshness and youth, strongly conveys her humanity. At the time Piero was painting, there was a tradition in Tuscany of naturalistic images of the ‘Madonna del Parto’, showing her as visibly pregnant. These images served to emphasise the humanity of Christ, as fruit of the Virgin’s womb. Our Lady’s pregnancy was extremely important in establishing that Our Lord was truly born of a woman, at a time when there was still theological debate about the exact nature of Jesus’ humanity. Furthermore, there was a concern during this period about images of the Annunciation, particularly coming into Italy from Byzantium, in which a tiny figure of Christ, already pre-formed, arrives in the womb of Our Lady, ‘as if the body he took on were not of her substance’, as Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, wrote in 1446. By depicting Our Lady as a young, pregnant woman, Piero powerfully promotes the truth of Our Lord’s humanity.

Sometime during the 16th century, after the Council of Trent had issued its decree on sacred images, the fresco was removed from the high altar of the church in Monterchi and demoted to a small side altar, where Mass could not be celebrated. It is possible that concerns were raised about the overly naturalistic depiction of Our Lady with a swollen abdomen, at a time when bishops were exhorted to ensure that ‘nothing be seen that is unbecomingly or confusedly arranged…nothing indecorous, seeing that holiness becometh the house of God.’ In the centuries following the Counter-Reformation, this beautiful image of the Mother of God took on a more maternal significance, and became a focus for devotion and intercessory prayers, particularly for women hoping to conceive and for those who were expecting children. Piero’s Madonna del Parto thus became, over time, a powerful image of maternity, and such was its reputation as an almost miraculous image, that in 1954 the mayor of Monterchi refused to lend it to a prestigious exhibition in Florence, for fear of the consequences should he allow it to leave the town. Today the painting is encased in glass in a purpose-built museum, preserved from the ravages of the weather but entirely stripped of its original context and purpose. Nevertheless, we can still meditate, as we await the joyful celebration of the birth of Our Lord, upon this beautiful image of Our Lady, who is so still, calm and dignified: she is at one and the same time the Ark of the New Covenant, the Tabernacle of Our Lord, the Mother of God, and the Mother of us all.