Ava Maria Plena Gratia

There are also several doves at the bottom of the painting, presumably indicating purity and perhaps symbols of love as well. (Wall Text 2012)

This shows the love that her mother had and how she was always caring for her child. The coffin and the number “82” symbolises the age that mother was upon her death, shown in lines 21 and 22 which state “You left the world so, having lived nearly thirty thousand days”, the daughter wanted her mother to live a longer life, which is why she says “I prayed you would live to see Halley’s comment a second time.” on lines 17 and 18. The last image of the hands clasped together symbolises the strength of their relationship and strong bond between mother and daughter.The two photos of the women crying and the quote “After all this time… I still miss you every day” show that although the mother has died the strong bond that exists between a mother and her daughter will never die and that she still remains very much alive in her daughters memory. Lines 25, 26 and 27 “At our last meeting I closed the ward door of heavy glass between us…”, symbolises the end of their time together on earth and this was the last time she saw her mother

“Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” is also known to a lot of people. It seems like such a sweet rhyme, having to do with this little girl planting flowers and putting little decorations on them to make this really beautiful garden. You can see

Although the surface of the artwork has been fairly damaged by smoke from burning candles and incense, there is still a suggestion of the bright circular halos which had once ‘crowned’ both the Virgin and the child. Cooper relates the symbolism of the circle as “one which expresses archetypal wholeness and totality and therefore divinity” (1982:19). The upper body of Mary appears very large, especially in comparison with the Christ-child, whose body ‘fits’ into her bosom, which is generally associated with comfort. Almost as though she tries to console him concerning his future death (Tansey & Kleiner, 1996: 312).

The Black Mary made Lily think about her life and what could be done to make it better. It made Lily think about the positives and negatives, and that she now had people to relate and connect to.

It is seen as a source of guidance, comfort, and the ability to persevere through hardship. In Lily’s case, it has been a great help, and it sure has guided her through her problems regarding May, running away from home, Rosaleen, and telling August the real story why she is here at Tiburon. One example is her comfort with the Black Mary statue, “I live in a hive of darkness, and you are my mother, I told her. You are the mother of thousands.” (Kidd 164) By Lily saying that Black Mary is her mother, it shows more comfort than

The most symbolic element in nature that is commonly used in novels is a flower. Flowers have been used in various genres of literature and just like a specific color, authors use a specific flower to convey and to communicate different types of messages. For example, a rose can be used to represent simplicity, beauty, love or even lust, whereas a white daisy can be used to represent innocence and purity. Margaret Atwood also uses flowers repetitively in her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s motif of flowers, clearly represent the love, and fertility associated with the woman in the Gilead society; Offred’s most important role of bearing children and her desires are demonstrated through the flower’s descriptions.

Seemingly, the flowers represent Elisa. She believes she is strong and tough and able to accomplish anything thrown her way; however, taken for granted as she is only a woman allowed to look and act accordingly. Surrounding the flowers is a wire fence set up to keep out predators and to separate the flowers from the rest of the farm. The wire fence is symbolic in the fact that it is identical to the world Elisa lives in. Elisa is contained within the farm, unable to explore or leave without the help of someone else. Elisa is stuck on the farm, isolated from the rest of the world so that she can be kept safe. Naive and unaware of how the world works, her husband keeps her on the farm to protect her from harm. When Elisa gives the chrysanthemum to the travelling merchant, she gives him a small piece of herself. Later, as her and her husband are driving to town, she sees the flower tossed aside as though it was nothing; as a result, she realizes she could never go off on and live the way the merchant had. The flowers embody her character still, and how out of her home without protection, the world can be harsh and cruel. In short, Elisa’s isolation leaves her ignorant, unable to understand how callous the world is, and comes to the bleak realization that she can’t live a life anywhere outside of her fence. Because of how women were treated, constantly pushed down and unable to pursue their interests, Elisa is left unable to learn what life has to offer. Learning

However, the most intriguing religious metaphor has to center around the Black Madonna. The Black Madonna has different meanings for different people. Lily sees it as the link to finding her mother or information about her mother. On the other hand, for Rosaleen and the other women, it gives them the will and the strength to keep going on, even when life brings them down. At the same time it is symbolic to Lily and Rosaleen in the same importance because the Black Madonna is

Lily’s first meeting with the black Mary occurs when she meets the Boatwright sisters: August, June, and May. At that moment Lily feels the nurturing of a mother and a deluge of emotions rain down on her. She could feel all sides of her, favorable and detrimental because “that’s what the black Mary did to me, made me feel my glory and my shame at the same time,” (Kidd 71). Lily, for being barely an adolescent, at first is not capable of grasping the concept of people being both angelic and corrupt. At the beginning of the story she sees T. Ray as the human embodiment of evil. Counter to her initial beliefs, Lily learns that people are not as simple as she wants them to be. This is largely the result of the mothering force of August, which is a more physical representation of what the black Mary embodies. The black Mary illustrates Lily starting to see the world from a multidimensional perspective. In the same manner as the black Mary representing a mother for Lily, she represents a mother-like figure to all the Daughters of Mary. While the other Daughters may not have been missing mothers, the black Mary creates a family-like binding between them, keeping them together throughout even them most poignant times. The black Mary is a mother to all and all Lily wants in the Boatwright house is to be seen as one of them. Ultimately, “they didn’t even think of me being different,” (Kidd 209). This acceptance

This part of the monomyth is represented by the archetype of the fairy godmother or the guardian angel. Mary is a perpetual messenger of god, a virtuous woman who represents the very ideals of power, struggle, despair, perseverance, and courage. Mary is considered a religious figure, a woman who sacrificed everything to god. Lily sees the picture of the Black Mary as a sign from heaven that she needs to go to Tiburon, where she will find what she is looking for. Lily puts her trust in god, as the virgin Mary aids her on her quest of self-fulfillment The Mary picture gives her the courage to go to Tiburon in search of her mothers past.

In Artwork 1, Mary is placed in the centre of the image between Christ who is on the left and God who is on the right. The Holy Spirit is between the two which forms the Holy Trinity. The composition can be viewed as forming an inverted triangle or heart shape. Mary is the focal figure with an attitude of modesty, reverence and tranquil emotion with her right hand placed upon her heart in which reinforces this. God is expressed as a picture of wisdom as He is crowning the head of Mary with a garland of roses, along side Jesus. The Holy Spirit is present in the image above Mary and is portrayed in the traditional form of a white dove. Cherubs, angelic beings, are visible at the base of the painting which can be interpreted as guards. The use of blue in their garments symbolising heavenly grace in

This concept leads Lily to believe that the Virgin Mary is in many ways her mother, even though she is a mother to thousands of other people as well (Emanuel 41). Lily receives support and love from August and the community like the bees, though it is a secret to the rest of the world. The bees act as pathfinders for Lily as she learns more about herself, along with Zach

Fig. 1 captures the very moment that the archangel Gabriel comes down from the heavenly realm to earth to announce to Mary that she will conceive the Christ-child and he shall be called Jesus. The gold of his crown is representative of the “celestial realm that he has left to deliver this message” (Kleiner, 2010:387). The announcement is depicted very much in the moment as the words are quite literally illustrated with the text "Ava gratia plena Dominus tecum" (Van Dijk, 1999:420), which leave his mouth from left to right as if they were encapsulated in a speech bubble. The phrase is in fact inscribed in Latin and reads as "Hail, Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women” (Van Dijk, 1999:420). The draping cloth around Gabriel’s gold-infused light blue robe whips around the angel as if he had just land and his wings, which are still erect, depict an effortless grace of divine delicacy in the way that Martini executed them. Making use of undulating, long curved linear lines, they are almost liquid-like in their fluidity. The angel is painted holding a branch of olive leaves in his left hand. This is a symbol of the Christ-head and his coming to earth as the “Prince of Peace” (Emmerson, 2006:456), and also makes a reference to the traditional biblical story of Noah, the ark and the dove returning with an olive branch as a promise of the covenant of peace made by God with man (Genesis 8:11, English Standard Version)

In this relief, we see it as Christ the child shares the viewer his joy of starting his new adventure as well as praising the purity of Virgin Mary. There are also three angels emerging from the cloud. In the Old Testament, angel’s functions refer to convey God’s will to mankind, which in this relief the angels reminds us of their role as “annunciators (ABRAHAM, 2: The three angels). They were the ones who carried messages from god and annunciated the birth of Christ. They are the witnesses of Christ the child coming to the human world as well as proof of Virgin Mary’s virtue of immaculate. In this relief, they are the guardian of the Virgin and child as well as admirers of Mary’s pure and virgin status. With their hands holding together in prayer, they show their blessings and caring to the mother and son as well as to the human world. In addition, unlike other Virgin Mary we see in churches’ altarpieces that are usually seated on throne, we also have Mary sitting humbly on the ground in this relief. According to Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, there is a popular theme of “Madonna of Humility” which its essential figure is that the Virgin is seated on the ground. The dictionary also states that artists set Virgin Mary on the ground to convey a medieval theology,