Virgin Of The Rocks

Imagine seeing the crucifiction of Christ. Seeing that happen would change everyone’s view of the world. Christ’s crucifiction affected many people, including His mother, Mary. Juan de Juanes, the artist, painted this scene realistically. This painting was made with oil paints on panel with long flowing strokes, which seemed to make it come to life. Juan de Juanes depicts many aspects in this painting such as historical significance, colors, and subject matter.

In the Gothic era, when it was popular for artist to create images and symbols of the Virgin Mary, began the Cult of the Virgin. Many artists focused on the Virgin Mary with Christ as the main topic in their art work. Did all the creations made of the Virgin portray her as good? Could some of the artists want to give a negative interpretation of the Virgin that could have only been seen through the artist’s eye and the eye of the beholder? I ask this question for the mere fact that anything regarding religion usually is controversial and I wonder if the symbol of the Virgin could have had another side to the story.

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

“From prostitute to sibyl to mystic to celibate nun to passive helpmeet to feminist icon to the matriarch of divinity’s secret dynasty.” (James Carroll “Who is Mary Magdalene”) What we know for sure is that Mary Magdalene was a former sinner that became a leading figure in Jesus’ followers. She stayed by Jesus’ side, to the end, she visited him at his tomb, and was the first person that Jesus “appeared after his resurrection and the first to preach the “Good News” of that miracle.” During the time period of this painting Mary Magdalene, a sinner and prostitute, illustrated “the very essence of spiritual conversion.” (Ebert-Schifferer 63) It’s no stretch to say that the painting is meant to show the moment at which Mary changes her ways, and becomes “married to the word of god”. The conversion of Mary was a new concept to Rome, The book “Caravaggio: The Artist and His Work” claims that this painting is the first to depict it.

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,

The Holy Virgin Mary was created by Chris Ofili in 1996. It is a mixed media painting, including paper collage, oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, map pins and elephant dung on linen with the size of 243.8 cm X 182.9 cm. The artwork portrays Mary, a black virgin, wearing a blue cape covers from her head down to her body. The cape wraps around her body, leaving an open space that reveals her right breast that was actually a dried lump of elephant dung. The woman was positioned standing in the center on a yellow-orange background with swirly lines that created a little detail in the background.

This major innovation that Georges adds to his Caravaggio inspired paintings would be showing the light source of the painting to the viewer, and putting the light source directly in the center of the piece. In his painting, Mary Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, Georges’ goal was to create a calm, reflective state of a follower of Christ. This painting shows Mary Magdalen, a repentive prostitute, putting aside her jewels and rich clothing to meditate on mortality while looking into a flickering flame. Georges creates subtle hints of religious meaning through items throughout the painting. The skull sitting in her lap refers to morality and the vanity of human life, the books of scripture refer to her following of Christ, and the scourge refers to the pain and suffering that Mary may have been experiencing in the past or during her

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).

John the Baptist is also allowed to stand near the holy mother and child, and an angel is present. Because of this, the viewer contends with a literal story rather than a simple image as in “Madonna Enthroned”. Also in Puligo’s image, where the central figures are larger and better seen, there are religious symbols used. The same might be true in Giotto’s work but the details are harder to distinguish.

It is a scene which is shown after Jesus was crucified, where his body has been removed from the cross and his friends and family mourn over his body. Many artists have focused this scene by just painting four people: the body of Christ, His mother, Saint Mary Magdalene and Joseph of Arimathea.

Created in 1489 this masterpiece is made out of pure marble. This sculpture is located in the Vatican City. At first glance this sculpture looks like child dead in a mother's arms, which is correct but there is more too it. The sculpture represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Its shows his mother Mary holding him and he lays there dead. A very little detail that usually goes unnoticed is that Mary is not touching her son directly, but a cloth is between the two. This signifies the Higher Renaissance belief in Neoplatonic, that the beauty on earth signifies God's beauty. This masterpiece is not only amazing by the meaning but the glorious detail that Michelangelo was able to go into with practically a hammer and chisel.

In terms of subject matter, both works are visual depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In each painting, Christ is the central figure, surrounded by two groups of figures. On the left, a group of women that includes the Virgin Mary mourns over the dead body of Christ, while on the right is a group of soldiers and other lamenters. Both works feature a rocky landscape on which the figures are positioned. Encircling Christ are several angels whose gestures of lamentation echo those of the figures below. Highlighting the severity of each scene is the blood that pours from Jesus' wounds. The blood from his feet drips onto human bones that are embedded in the rocky terrain below. The skull serves as a "memento mori," or a reminder of death, an idea that has been repeated in several other depictions of Christ's crucifixion.

In the painting The Immaculate Conception (Figure 1) painted by Antonio de Palomino y Velasco, there is a prominent central figure found in the middle of the canvas. The figure is a woman draped in white and blue garments with red accents and surrounded by cherubs and doves. The woman is the Virgin Mary and has a crown of 12 stars around her head. Both cherubs and doves are often used as religious symbols and this piece of art is Biblical in that it illustrates Mary very much like she is described in the book of Revelation. Revelation 12:1 reads that “…a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun and, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” During the time period that Antonio Palomino created this piece, there were countless other artists painting similar works with their own spin on things. Notable artists include the likes of Juan de Valdes Leal and Bartolome Esteban Murillo. In this time period, the counter-reformation was taking place and I believe that, as a response to the protestant reformation, the painting of religious images was used to reignite growth in the Catholic Church.

Leonardo’s scientific studies resulted in the paintings of rocks, plants, light and atmosphere. We can see hills, fields and the sky in the tree windows behind Christ. This is in a classical style, shown by the coffered ceiling which was introduced by ancient Greek and Romans and re-introduced again by Alberti. The orthogonals run from the coffered ceiling, the table and windows and from the disciples and their gestures which all then centres on Christ. The use of foreshortening in this painting is to emphasize the drama of the scene and to keep the figures in harmonious groups. As we can see on the third figure on the right, St Philip tries to deny that he would be the betrayer and to show this, his arm is foreshortened. While St Matthew, the fourth figure on the right, has his arms outflung which was made by foreshortening. This gesture was to help portray his horror, as well as his mouth opened talking to the 3 men to the left of him. There are other gestures that helped depict the idea of betrayal, as we can see on the left side of the painting where St Peter whispers to St. John’s ear while pushing Judas forward. All these gestures lead the viewers’ attention to the centre, where Christ is positioned. Behind Jesus, we can see the window where the natural light comes in which frames Christ’s head, like a halo. Christ’s position in the centre allowed him to be in front of the three windows, which symbolizes the Trinity. As well as that, we can see that he

Gorgeously. Striking. Grace. The golden painting is taking up by the two most iconic symbols of Christianity: Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. Christ gently placing a golden grown on the inclined head of the Virgin Mary, who is sitting on the right side of Jesus; her hands crossed over her chest symbolist of humble, reverent and loyalty. This position was purposely set by Fabriano. In Christianity art, position is significant in dividing between good manners and malefactors. For instance, in The Last Judgment by Giotto di Bondone in 1305, heaven was placed on right of Christ, and hell was on the left. This ideology was clearly stated in the bible “...before him shall be gathered all nations: