THE UADONNA DEL PART0 IN TRECENTO TUSCANY: SYMBOLIC

MEWGAND RITUAL USE

A thesis submitted to the Department of Art History

in conformity with the requirements for

the degree of Master of Arts

Queen's University

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

October 1997

copyright O Jillian Harrold, 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 191 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OtiawaON KIAON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Your tue volve rdf&fcma

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This thesis examines the naturalistic representations of the Madonna del Parto which emerged in Tuscany in the Trecento. These complex devotional images are considered in tems of both their symbolic meaning and ritual use.

The first chapter explores some of the iconographic and visual sources of the

Madonna del Pmto type, beginning with the influence of symbolic Byzantine methods of representation on the art of the West. A second iconographic consideration is the impact of the tradition of Romanesque wooden sculptures of the Virgin and Child on Trecento painted images. Finally, the emergence of Italian Romanesque and Gothic naturalism. which provides a source for the visual language of the images, is discussed.

The iconographic meaning of the Madonna del Purro is the subject of the second chapter. A simple visuai image of a pregnant Mado~arepresents the central and complex theologicai mystery of the Incarnation, a meaning which descends from the previously mentioned Byzantine and Romanesque types. To gain insight into possible contemporary interpretations of the Trecento images, the writings of medievd theologians and popular religious texts are considered.

In the third chapter, the cult or popular meanings and functions of the Mudonna del Parto. which existed simdtaneously to their theological and liturgical counterparts, are explored. The Madonnn del Parto type is show to be amongst the objects and images used to assist women with problems of fertility and childbearing, which functioned on the basis of contemporary beliefs in their positive effect on the matemal imagination. The thesis concludes with a consideration of two Madonna del Parto images still activeiy worshipped today. Acknowledgements

I would iike to thank several people who contributed to the development of this thesis.

First, Cathleen Hoeniger for her inspiration and assistance, but particulariy for helping me to clarify and express my ideas. Special thanks to rny mother, Diane, for taking time out of her own demanding scheduie in order to edit my work thoroughly, and to my father,

Randolf, for proof reading the final draft and for generously making available the administrative support necessary to hish this study. Finally, I would like to thank Mark for al1 his help throughout the past year and a ha. Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ...... P- v

Introduction ...... ,...... P. 1

Chapter One Historical Context: The Iconographie and Visual Sources of the Madonna del Parto ...... P. 6

Chapter Two Symbolic Meaning: A Systematic study of the Iconography of the Madonna del Parto ...... p. 32

C hapter Three Ritual Use: A Contextual Exploration of Possible Functions of the Mudonna del Parto ...... p. 6 1

Conclusions ...... p. 90

Bibliography ...... p. 93

Illustrations ...... p. 1 O0

Vita List of Illustrations

fig .1 : Bettino Corsino da Prato, Madonna del Parto.

fig. 2: Master of San Martino alla Palma, Madonna del Parto.

fig. 3 : Madonna Platytera.

fig. 4: The Birth of Julius Caesar.

fig. 5: Madonna and Child.

fig. 6: Madonna and Child.

fig. 7: Three Mothers. fig. 8: Madonna and Child. fig. 9: Madonna Orans. fig . 10 : Workshop ofPaolo Veneziano, Madonna della Misericordia. fig. 1 1 : Workshop of Paolo Veneziano, Madonna della Misericordia. fig. 12: Jacopo del Fiore, Tripîych of the Madonna della Misericordia. fig. 13: Madonna della Clemenza. fig . 14: Margarita d'Arezzo, Virgin and Child Enthroned. fig . 15 : Morgan Madonna. fig. 16: Madonna and Child. fig. 17: Vierge Ouvrante. fig. 18: Vierge Ouvrante, interior. fig. 19: Piero della Francesca, Madonna del Parto. fig. 20: Taddeo Gaddi, Madonna del Parto. fig. 2 1 : Nardo di Cione, Madonna del Parto. fig. 22: Simone dei Crocifissi, Madonna del Parto. fig. 23: Workshop of Niccolb da Boiogna, Madonna del Parto. fig. 24: Rossel10 di Jacopo Franchi, Madonna del Pmto. fig. 25: Master of San Martino alla Palma, Madonna della Nha. fig. 26: Follower of Nardo di Cione, Mndonna del Parto. fig. 27: Orcagnesque Master, Maria delle Virtir. fig. 28: School of Bemardo Daddi, Madonna and Saints. fig. 29: School of Bemardo Daddi, MagniJcat. fig. 30: Venetian School, Madonna dei Parto. fig. 3 1 : Madonna of the Sheates. Introduction The Trecento Madonna del Parto images were Church sanctioned representations of the Incarnation, rich in detailed theological information. Images such as these, however, also functioned ritually within the popular cult practices of the tirne. Both of these contexts-symbolic meaning and ritual use--mut be taken into account in order to provide a comprehensive examination of the Mudonna del Parto type. Such an examination of powemil devotional images with multiple and complex functions does not lend itself to any single methodology. Therefore, this study will approach the images in several different ways. To date, the scholarship dealing with the Madonna del Porto has been sparse, and much of the existing work concentrates on the classification and identification of the images as a group. Consequently, there is no existing mode1 which takes into account both meaning and fûnction. Therefore, for a thorough study of the Madonna del Parto, this thesis will apply the methodologies of scholars who have explored related devotional images and objects. The task of the first chapter is to describe the iconographic and visual sources of the Madonna del Porto in order to provide background for the emergence of the type. An iconological approach will be used in Chapter Two in order to analyse the symbolic meaning of the images. Fuially, the third chapter will adopt a contextual approach which considers anthropological methods in order to ultimately show how the Madonna del Parto representations could have functioned as aids to women in issues surrounding procreation.

The Madonna del Parto belongs to an iconographic tradition of Incarnation representations. In the first chapter, Byzantine symbolic images and Romanesque

wooden sculptures will be studied as precursors to the naturalistic Trecento images. Emerging Italian Romanesque and Gothic naturalisrn will be described as a source for the visuai language of the images. The most comprehensive iconological investigation of the Madonno del Parto is Caroline Feudaie's 1957 article, which is considered in Chapter Two.' However, as her article was developed out of her Master's thesis dealing with Piero della Francesca, her intention is to provide an explanation of the iconography of the Piero Madonnu del Parto fresco in Monterchi. As such, her argument is coloured by the apparent funereal location of the Monterchi fresco. nius she focuses on two important Christian mysteries, the Incarnation and the Assurnption of the Virgin, which appear linked in some of the images. It is, in fact, Ilene Forsyth's look at a related Marian image type, the Romanesque Throne of Wisdom sculptures, that provides the best mode1 for the second chapter. The Throne of Wisdom is similar to the Madonna dei Parto because of its simple appearance and complex meaning. Following Forsyth, each symbolic element of the Madonna del Parto will be interpreted in the context of contemporary theological writings.2 The exploration in Chapter Three of the ritual use of the Madonna del Parto will reflect a contextual approach. Information on how devotional images functioned within the context of medieval and Renaissance society, and how the requirements of society impacted on the images, has been provided by the influential studies of Richard Trexler and David ~reedber~.'Furthemore, recent efforts of some scholars to include alternate

'Caroline Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madonna dei Parto," Marsyas 7 (1957) pp.8- 24. In his discussion of Italian images, Gregor Lechner folows Feudale quite closely. See Gregor Lechner, Maria Gravida: Zum Schwangerschu~smotivin der bildenden Kunst (Munich: Verlag Schnell und Steiner, 1981). ' Ilene Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972). 'Richard Trexler, Public LiJe in Renaissance Florence (London: Academic Press, 1980). David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). fields such as anthropology in the study of art history will be considered in order to provide insight into the function of the Madonna del Parto. Although there is no literature that deals with the fûnction of the Madonna del Parto specifically, there are some studies that address similar images and objects, situating them within the context of female devotion and providing ideas that can then be applied to the Madonna del farta4 One of the most important is Jacqueline Musacchio's work, "Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Italy," which examines images and practices surromding childbirth and pre~ancy.5Her examination of the society of post- plague Renaissance Florence reveals a social context in which numerous talismanic objects and images were employed as aids by the fernale community during the ritual of childbirth. In order to explore the practices of women, Musacchio turns to Less traditionai sources of documentary evidence such as household inventories and personai letters between women. Significantly, Julia Miller and Geraldine Johnson apply similar ideas and methods to images of the Virgin ~ar~.~Following the examples of Musacchio, Miller and Johnson, the Madonna del Parto images can be shown to have fûnctioned as aids in fertility and birth. Finally, J.E. Ziegler's 1989 article, "The Medieval Virgin as Object: Art or Anthropology?," addresses the intersection of these two fields.' Ziegler applies the

- - ' Although Brendan Cassidy mentions the ritual use of the type, he does not go on to describe it. See Brendan Cassidy, "A ReIic, Some Pictures and the Mothers of Florence in the Late Fourteenth Century," Gesta 30 (199 1) pp.9 1-99. 5 Jacqueline Musacchio, "Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Italy" (unpublished, 1995). 'Julia Miller applies similar ideas to the image of the Nativity in the Portinari Altarpiece. See Julia Miller, "Miraculous Childbirth and the Portinari Altarpiece," Art Bulletin 77 (June 1995) pp.249-261. Geraldine Johnson discussed pnvate Marian images in the home within this context in a conference at the National Gallery in London, "Family Values: Sculpture and the Family in Fifieenth-Century Florence," Art, Memory and Family in EarZy Renaissance Florence, Iune 1996. 'J.E. Ziegler, "The Medievai Virgin as Object: Art or Anthropology?," Historical Rejlectiofleflexions Historiques 1 6 ( 1989) pp.25 1-264. methods of both art history and anthropology to a case study, the early fourteenth-century Pietà of St. Michael in Bree, in Limburg, Belgium. She believes that traditional art history, with its concentration on the object and commitment to the idea of authenticity, is not equipped to interpret the meaning of this type of complex and powerful devotional image. The type is what anthropology would term an "evolved image," with a cumulative appearance that has changed throughout its history. Ziegler maintains that the meaning of an object such as this cm be found in the people who venerated it. Such an interpretation is informed by the fact that many of these objects, including two of the Madonna del Parto images considered in this chapter, function as contemporary cult image^.^

'Ruth Philips also discusses the relationship between art history and anthropology, through the history of both disciplines. She believes that there is a compatibility between the two as both treat material objects within a cultural context. See Ruth Phillips,

" Fielding Culture: Dialogues Between Art History and A nthropology, 'Taper presented to the Association of Art Museum Directors in Raleigh, North Carolina, 8 June 1992. Chapter l

Historical Context: Iconographie and Visual Sources of the Madonna del Parto. A naturalistic way of representing the Madonna del Parto emerged in Tuscany in the Trecento. Although few examples survive, they are dl relatively consistent in their appearance and meaning? The Virgin is shown standing on her own in the centre of the image. She holds a book in her lefi hand, and makes a protective geshue with her nght that serves to emphasize the swelling of her abdomen. In many pictures she wears a knotted belt or girdle. Sometimes the basic formula is varied to emphasize the different roles played by the Virgin.l0 Although such images take their meaning from previous depictions of the Incarnation, new emphasis is placed on the human fact of the Virgin's pregnancy and motherhood. The basic Trecento type can best be introduced by examining two of the swiving examples. The fist is the earliest known nanilalistic Madonna del Parto panel, now in the Museo delllOpera del Duomo in Prato (fig. 1). It is attributed to Bettino Corsino da Prato, and was most likely painted in the second decade of the fourteenth century." The Virgin is the only figure in this composition. She stands, slightly turned, and holds a book with both hands. The book is positioned over her womb and covers the top of the knotted cord she wears as a belt. She is wearing a simple round necked dress and an unornamented mantle. Her pregnancy is indicated through the swelling under her gown. Her head is

S'ewer than twenty full length images of the nahualistic Madonna del Parto fkom central Italy have been identified. There are also two hdf length panels, included by Caroline Feudale. See Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madonna del Parto," Marsyas: Studies in the History ofArt 7 (1957) pp.8-24. 10 For example, in several images apocalyptic imagery is included in order to emphasize Mary's role as Queen of Heaven, or Regina Coeli. "Brendan Cassidy dates this panel 13 10-1320, based on the whereabouts of Bettino Corsino da Prato. See Brendan Cassidy, "A Relic, Some Pictures and the Mothers of Florence in the Late Fourteenth Century," Gesta 30 (1991) p.98. It is also most likely the panel described by Andrew Ladis: "To the list of examples compiled by Offner and extended by Feudale, 1 add a panel, by an artist in the shop or following of Iacopo del Casentino, in the Museo delllOpera del Duomo, Prato." Andrew Ladis, Taddeo Gaddi: Critical Reappraisal and CataZogue Raisonne (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1982) p. 169. covered and there seems to be a halo, although the top of the gabled panel appears to have been cut dom, markedly reducing the space around the Virgin's head. A slightly later example is the mid-Trecento panel by the Master of San Martino alla Palma in Santa Maria in Campo, Florence (fig. 2). This Madonna was previously thought to be the earliest Tuscan panel of this kind.I2 Again, Mary is standing full length in a gabled panel and is tumed slightly. She is dressed in a plain gown and rnantle with her head covered and she has a halo. On her shoulder rests the star that emphasizes her perpetual virginity." She holds a book in her lefi hand and uses her right hand to draw her mantle protectively around her womb. The protective geshire also has the effect of drawing attention to her physical condition. This type of hand gesture, although not evident in the previous example, is common to most of the Madonna del Parto images. Once again the Virgin is clearly pregnant, and the fdlness of her womb is enhanced by the knotted belt tied hi& above her rounded stomach. In this case, the cord is tied in a bow and falls in two strands. Due to characteristics such as these, the Madonna del Parto as a type is recognizable; however, the significance of the subject matter has remained enigrnatic, arousing Little interest from scholars over the past century. The literature dealing with this group of representations is sparse, and much of it concentrates on identiQing the characteristics of the type and establishing a Iist of known

- -- -- I2CarolineFeudale, not knowing of the Pratese example, believed this provincial panel to be the earliest prototype. Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madonna del Parto," p. 10. She was following Richard Ofnier who identifies the Madonna del Parto type with this panel. See Richard Ofher, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting 3, 5 (New York: Institute of Fine Arts, 1934) pp.28-3 1. ')Mary was associated with a star by medieval theologians, beginning with the early interpretation of her name as Stilla Maris by Saint Jerome, which becarne SteZla Maris or Star of the Sea. She was like a star in her miraculous conception because, "The star sends forth its ray without hami to itself." Bernard of Clairvaux, Homily 2, Magnificat: Homilies in Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Bernard of Clairvaux and Amadeus of Lausanne, tram. Marie-Bernard Said and Grace Perigo O(a1arnazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1979) p.30. See also Gregor Lechner, Maria Grmida: Zum Schwangerschafismotiv in der bildenden Kunst (Munich: Verlag Schnell und Steiner, 1981) p.402. examples. Caroline Feudale's 1957 article, based on her Master's thesis dealing with Piero della Francesca, remains the most comprehensive investigation of the Madonnu del Parfo images as a group. Feudale, in tum, acknowledges her debt to Richard Ofier's 1930 edition of the Corpus of Florentine Painting, in which he lists seven examples. Brendan Cassidy, who expanded the List in 199 1, believes Ofnier to have been the first to identiQ the type. Although these authors have noted and discussed the iconographic similarities in the images, the sources and traditions that contributed to the development of this iconography in Italy have not been fûlly explored.14 In this chapter, some of the iconographic and visual sources of the Madonna del Parto image will be examined. This exploration will begin in the context of the intense period of Byzantine intluence following the sack of Constantinople, and concentrate on how Byzantine symbolic representations irnpacted on the art of the West. A second tradition that must be considered is that of Romanesque wooden sculptures of the Virgin and Child, which uitluenced contemporary painted images." Finally, the emerging Italian Romanesque and Gothic naturalism provides a source for the visual language of the images. Under the influence of various religious, scientific and philosophical trends, particularly the emerging Franciscan movement, artistic representation in Tuscany shified away from the influence of Byzantine symbolic language, toward a developing naturalism by the end of the Duecento.

'mequestion arises as to what existed prior to this development in the Trecento. Elly Cassee suggests that there were earlier depictions destroyed due to the Council of Trent when representations of 'Maria in expectatione' were declared unorthodox. Elly Cassee, "La Madonna del Parto," Purugone 29 (1 978) pp.95-96. Ofier descnbes the emphasis on the human fact of the Virgin's conception as rare in Italian fourteenth-century painting and relates it to the realism of the period. See Ofier, Corpus 3,5, p.28. "For the impact of sculpted forms on painted images, see John Paoletti, " Wooden Sculpture in Italy as Sacral Presence," Artibus et Historiae 26 (1 992) pp.85- 100. The conquest of Constantinople by the amies of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 resulted in, arnong other things, a strong wave of Byzantine influence on thirteenth century Italian art. This was partly due to the presence of Westem crusader artists in the Latin Empire, centred in Constantinople, and the Holy Land or Latin Kingdom, centred in Jerusalem and then Acre? The artists who established workshops in these three cities came fiom dlparts of Europe and included in their nurnber some Venetians and possibly other Italians as well. Their location positioned them as intermediaries in the transmission of artistic influence from the East to the West, and the ateliers they established provided destinations for migrant Western artists who came to visit and study. At the same the, it is likely that many of the crusader artists themselves eventually retumed to their comtries of origin, bringing home the techniques they had leamed and the stylistic and iconographie influences they had absorbed." Another effect of the 1204 sack of Constantinople was the arriva1 of a sizeable amount of Eastern art in Italy, most of which ended up in Venice. It should be noted, however, that by this time, some Eastern art and artists had been present in Italy for several hundred years. For example, Byzantine mosaicists had been working on the Italian peninsula fiom the eleventh to the thirteenth cenhuie~.'~What appears to be new to the Duecento is the presence of Byzantine icon painters in Tuscany, allowing for the direct transmission of influence to the realrn of sacred panel painting.19 This active cross-

*6Constantinoplewas centre of the Latin Empire until 1261. The Latin Kingdom was centered in Jerusalem until that city was lost in 1244 at which tirne Acre became the capital until it was finally lost in 1291. "Kurt Weitzmann,"Icon Painting in the Crusader Kingdom," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 20 (1966) pp.49-83. ''The earliest workshop identified by Ernst Kitzinger was at Montecassino in 1070. A later example of this Byzantine mosaic can be found at Monreale in Sicily, executed between 1 180 and 1190. Ernst Kitzinger, "The Byzantine Contribution to Western Art of the Twelflh and Thirteenth Centuries," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 20 (1966) pp.36-38. Evidence of eastern mosaicists is found even earlier in both Ravema and Rome. '%ans Belting discusses the possibility of the presence of Eastern artists in Tuscany in his article on two panels now in the National Gallery, Washington, "The Byzantine fertilization of both images and artists meant that technical and iconographie developments occuring in both Byzantium and Italy couid be transmitted very quickly to either place? At the same time it is important to remember that, as Ernst Kitzinger has pointed out, Western artists of the early thirteenth century were not solely influenced by contemporary Eastern art. They were aiso interested in older Byzantine art fiom a more "classical", pre-iconoclastic period, which likely began to appear in the West with greater fiequency during the cru sa de^.^' Thus, examples fiom both penods will be included as antecedents to the Trecento Madonnu del Purto images in this discussion.

Although the Tuscan Trecento artists amved at a different manner of representing the pregnant Madoma, as is pointed out by Brendan Cassidy, it rernains clear that they inherited quite a bit from their Byzantine predecessors, particularly in terms of meaning. The Byzantine images of the Incarnation often portrayed Christ in a mandorla shape suspended in fiont of the Virgin's torso. Indeed, images based on eastern iconography continued to be produced through the medieval penod and well into the early Renaissance. A later example is the Madonna Platytera, now in the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow (fig. 3). Platytera is another name for the type of representation in which Chnst

- -- - Madonnas: New Facts About their Italian Ongin and Some Observations on Duccio," Studies in the History of Art 12 (1 982) pp.7-22. This discussion is accompanied by technical proof in Ann Hoenigswaldls accompanying article in the same issue under the same title, pp.25-3 1. %mst Kitzinger discusses a "live" transmission to Italy of the dynamic changes occuring in the Byzantine aesthetic, and describes the Byzantine contribution to the Italian nascent Gothic style. Kitzinger, "The Byzantine Contribution to Westem Art of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries," pp.37-39. "Kitzinger, "The Byzantine Contribution to Westem art of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries," pp.40-45. James Stubblebine descnbes Tuscan artists of the Duecento as having combined contemporary Byzantine influence and what he terms "Italian" elements to varying degrees. See, Stubblebine, "Byzantine Influence in Thirteenth- Century Italian Panel Painting," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 20 ( 1 966) pp.87- 1 0 1. is portrayed floating in a mandorla or medallion before the breast of his mother." However, such symbolic representatiom of the matemity of Mary ody existed as a result of established conventions in pre-iconoclastie Byzantine art.

In turn, the representational forms of the sixth and seventh centuries inherited Imperial iconography, a tradition that will be briefly examined here as it is relevant to the meaning of the images of the Madonna del Parto. Images of the Platytera developed out of an official Imperial portrait type called the cZipeus, or portrait shield. The clipeus portrait of the Emperor was generally enclosed in a circular form, often a laure1 wreath, and was used throughout the Roman Empire as a battlefield m tan dard.^ Antique models were usually presented in profile, but the type preferred by the Byzantine den, which actually originated in Rome prior to the foundation of Constantinople, was fully frontal and ~ymmetrical.'~Officiai portraits were necessarily iconographically distinct as they were given an important role in public Iife. Portraits that were govemment sanctioned had legal status and were often accorded the same veneration as the Emperor, in some cases even representing his authority when he was absent. The various types of portraits had specific functions such as confinning the authenticity of diplornatic agreements and legal decisions. Eariy images of Christ were used in some of the same contexts as those of the Emperor, and therefore similar iconographic formats were adopted. For exarnple, the clipeus portraits of Christ, which were almost identical in appearance to those of the Emperor, were also carried into the battlefield. OAen a clipeus Christi would be attached

this twelfth to thirteenth cenniry Madonna Platytera, the Virgin holds her amis in an orant position. For more information on the development of the Platytera type see Adolf Weis, Die Madonna Platytera (Konigstein Un Taunus: Karl Robert Langewiesche Nachfolger Hans Koster, 1985). sHans Belting, Likeness and Presence: A History of rhe Image befire the Era of Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994) p. 1 14. "André Grabar, ['Empereur dans I'orr byzantin (London: Variorurn Reprints, 1971 ) pp.4- 12. to a cross for the same purpose? It was not until the end of the sixth cenniry, however, that specifically Christian representations became more commonplace. The cult of Christian images intensified at this point, and icons became the objects of elaborate rituals derived fiom those previously associated only with imperial images." In tirne, images of Christ came into regular use as part of the civil and military cult of images of the Empire. The clipeus or portrait shield iconography was used in images of the Madoma and Child, called Playfera, that proliferated toward the end of the sixth century? In one variation the Virgin, seated on a throne or standing, presents an image of Christ to the viewer on a clipeus-type shield in fiont of her body. Two seventh-century eastem examples illustrate this form. The kstis a hdf length icon of the Virgin in the Mount Sinai monastery, and the second is a fiesco fiom the monastery of St. Apollo in what was formerly Bawit, Egypt. In the icon, Mary presents her son to the viewer in an oval shield directly in fiont of her body (fig. 5). In the eesco, however, the Virgin holds the clipeus Christi resting on her left knee (fig. 6). The entire body of Christ is shown in these images and in both he is shown in a fülly frontal position. A sirnilar type of representation existed simultaneously in Rome, as can be seen in an eighth century wall painting fiom Santa Maria Antiqua (fig. 7). Here Mary stands between Anna and Elizabeth and again presents Christ on a portrait shield?

- - =The use of the symbol of Christ in this battlefield context began officially with Constantine who included the fun two letters of Christus on his clipeus at the Battle of the Milvean Bridge, although the actual image of the Crucified was not used until two centuries later. See, Belting, Likeness and Presence, pp. 10% 109. "Christian images did exist earlier than the sixth century, and likely began to be used in worship in the fourth century . Belting, Likeness and Presence, p. 106. Ernst Kitzinger uses the cross as an example of a type of image worshipped. In, Kitzinger, "The Beginnings of the Christian Cult of Images," The Art of B'untium and the Medieval West (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976) pp.95- 100. ?'Belting, Likeness and Presence, pp.5 8-59. BThe child Mary and John the Baptist are held by their mothers, but Christ is enclosed within a circular shape. Weis, Die Madonna Platytera, p.37. The clipeus format of the Imperid military tradition, served to remind the viewer of the cult status of the Mage and the veneration it deserved." The position of the Child, usually in fiont of the toso of the Madoma, physically ernphasized the role of the Virgin as the bearer of Chri~t.~In this context, the portrait shield could also be interpreted as a schematized womb due to its shape, content and position relative to the body of the mother. The fact that the human mother is presenting a portrait of the God she will bear to the viewer indicates her role as the vehicle through which the Incarnation was realized, and clarifies her position as God bearer, or The~iokos.'~Thus this single image combines the essential Christian concepts of the divinity and hurnanity of Christ with a surprishg and effective economy of symbols. The Mount Sinai and St. Apollo examples correspond to two celebrated pre- iconoclastic miracle working icons, particularly venerated in the ninth century in Constantinople after the Triumph of Orthodoxy. They were the Nikopoia, or 'Bringer of Victory', in which the child is centred and is completely within the outlines of his mother's body, and the Hodegetria, 'instructress or guide', in which the child is on the lefi arm of his mother who hims towards hirn. Both iconographic types continued to be used in Eastern art through the Middle Ages. These types also remained influentid in Italy through the late medieval period and, in fact, most of the Duecento Madoma and Child

29Belting,Likeness and Presence, p. 114. 301nterestingly,Hans Belting believes this type of image to represent the time before the actual Incarnation: "the human mother is presenting the heavenly God before he takes on human form in her body." Belting, Likeness and Presence, p.59. 3 1 Theotokos, often translated as "Mother of God," more accurately means, "the one who gave birth to the One who is God." This controversial title was authorized in the fifi century, at the council of Ephesus (43 1) at which tirne it was stated that: "If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God [Theotokon] inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Logos of God made flesh, let him be an anathema." In Jaroslav Pelikan, Imago Dei: The Byzantine Apologia for Icons (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990) p. 135. panels reflect one or the other of the two positions." For the purpose of this discussion, however, it is the continued influence of the centrally positioned child, apparent in the Nikopoia, that is most important. The eleventh century Nikopoia mosaic in the apse of the church of St. Sophia in Ohrid, Macedonia exemplifies this form (fig. Venice, with its traditionally close relationship to Byzantium, provides a good case study for the continued influence of eastem Incarnation images on the Italian peninsula. An icon of the Madonna Orans, fiom about 1200, in the church of Santa Maria Mater Domini in Venice, could be of either Venetian or Byzantine ongin (fig. 9). Due to its early date, this marble relief was Iikely influentid in the developrnent of Venetian images of the Madonna as bearer of Christ. In the relief, a bust of Christ is suspended in a rnandorla in fiont of Mary's breast. The icon, a variant of the Piatytera type, was based on an older miracle-working image rediscoved in the B Iachernae Church in Constantinople. The pre-iconoclastic icon, found in 1031, was Iikely the one that was influentid in terms of the development of the Nikopoia fom. "

32AlastairSmart, The Dawn of ltalian Painting I250-1400 (Ithaca: Comell University Press, 1978) p. 12. "The two pre-iconoclastie icons were venerated as protective images of the armies of the Byzantine state, and were put on the seals of the Emperor going into battle. The Nikopoia was used in the sixth and seventh centuries, although it was not necessady named as such. The Hodegetria was particulatly used in the ninth cenhiry. Both iconographie types continued to be used with these names in eastem art of the middle ages. André Grabar, L 'Iconoclasme Byzantin. Dossier Archeologique (Paris: College de France, 195 7) pp .35, 2 12-2 13,226. The mosaic fiom Ohrid which reproduces the Nikopoia, was probably based on a pre-iconoclastie icon, rediscovered in 103 1 at the Blachemae Church in Constantinople, that was thought to be the original image. Belting, Likeness and Presence, p. 182. "Ham Belting writes that the Venetian icon is redscent of two icons in the Blachemae Chiilch in Constantinople where the relic of the Virgin's made was housed. They are the chief miracle working icon which showed the Virgin in an Orant position, and the rediscovered icon on which was the prototype for the Nikopoia, in which Mary presents her son on a portrait shield. Belting, Likeness and Presence, p. 186. Gregor Lechner describes it as a variant of the PZutytera type based on the miracle working image fiom the Blachemae Church in Constantinople. This is particularly clear as the relief in Venice has holes in its hands, relating to the chief Blachernae icon which dispensed holy water Two fourteenth-century Venetian examples of the Madonna and Child demonstrate the continuhg influence of the clipeus or Platyteru type of representation. These panels are boâh fiom the workshop of Paolo Veneziano, and are images of the Madonna della Misericordia, dso cailed Our Lady of Mercy. One is a standing Madoma in a private collection, and the other is an enthroned figure, now in the Accademia in Venice. In the image in which the Virgin is standing, she is crowned and she takes lay supplicants under her protective made (fig. 10). The enthroned Virgin also has a made under which two devotional figues are praying (fig. 1 L)." This Western type of the icon emphasizes the protective nature of the cloak of Mary, Lady of Mercy, in a very literal way? In both panels the Christ Child is represented Ml-length in a mandorla in fiont of the breast of the Virgin, as if her womb and its contents were visible on the outside of her body. This form of representation continued to be employed in Venice in the fifieenth

cenniry as cmbe seen in Jacopo del Fiore's triptych of the Madonna della Misericordia, fiom the 1430s which is also in the Accademia (fig. 12)? Again this represents the Lady of Mercy type with the Christ Child in a mandorla on Mary's breast. Interestingly, in this representation the Virgin's dress is parted below the child, serving to emphasize the entrance through which God came into the world.

through its hands; he also says it is closely related to the relief of the Porto-Madonna in Ravenna. Lechner, Maria Gravida, pp.486-487. André Grabar discusses the Blachemae type, which he indicates is a Virgin with her hands in the orant position with a bust of the Christ Child appearuig before her breast in a clipeus. Grabar, L'iconoclasme Byzantine, p.252. Adolf Weis follows Lechner quite closely, but he does not use the term clipeus. Weis, Die Madonna Platytera, p.40. 3'Francesco Valcanover rem& that although this work is signed 1333, it was probably completed quite a bit later. Valcanover, Gallerie Dell'Accademia di Venezia (Novara: Istituto Geographico de Agostini, 1955) p. 1. 36~elting,Likeness and Presence, pp.3 54-3 58. "Francesca Valcanover dates this work to 1436, near the end of Jacopo del Fiore's career. Valcanover, Gallerie Del1'Accademia di Venezia, p. 12. The variant of the Nikopoia type that became more popdar in centrai Italy in the Late Middle Ages does not include the mandorla, or schematized womb? The Child is represented enclosed within the outline of the body of his mother, who, in presenting him to the worshipper, acts as a frame of reference for him, the medium through which he entered the world. A seventh-century example is the icon of the Madonna della Clemenra in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome (fig. 13):~The inscription on the panel, which describes the importance of the Virgin hahg carried Christ in her womb, underscores the meaning of the image by providing a theological statement about the Incarnation. This reminder of Mary's role would have also served to ernphasize her power as an intercessor." The influence of this type of representation can be seen in many Tuscan panels from the Duecento, including Margarita d'Arezzo's mid-thirteenth century Virgin and Child Enthroned in the National Gallery in London (fig. 14)." In this panel

"One has only to look at Edward Garrison's survey of Italian Romanesque panels to note the absence of the mandorla type. Garrisoo, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting (New York: Hacker Art Books, 1976). '%ans Belting dates the icon to 705-7, because of the presence of Pope John VI1 in the image. Belting, Likeness and Presence, pp. 129-139. Pietro Amato is not positive of the identification of the figure as John VII, and believes the panel could be fkom a bit earlier, perhaps the sixth centq. Amato, De Vera Efigie Mariae: Antiche Icone Romane (Rome: Arnoldo Mondadori, De Luca Editioai d'me, 1988) pp.26-32. Marina Warner notes its similarity to an icon found at the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai from the seventh century. Wamer, Alone ofAl1 her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary (London: Picador, 1990) p. 107. For many centuries this icon was believed to be fkom the East, brought to Rome by Saint Calisto, the martyr to whorn the church was dedicated. For meridormation on this image see Carlo Bertelli, La Madonna di Santa Maria in Trastevere. Storia, iconografia, stile di un dipinto romano dell'VIII sec010 (Rome: Carlo Bertelli, 196 1). mCarlo Bertelli's transcription of the inscription is as follows. From the top and running domthe right hand side: + ASTANT STYPENTES ANGELORUM PRINCIPES GESTARE NAT(M... A...; on the left: SD QYOD IPSE FACTYS EST; and other fragments that Bertelli attempts to translate: "poiche Dio stesso si fece da1 tuo utero, ...i pruicipi degli angeli ristanno e stupiscono di Te che porti in grembo (gestare) il Nato ..." Bertelli, La Madonna di Santa Maria in Trastevere, p.34. "The date used by the National Gallery in London is Ca. 1262, as proposed by Edward Ganison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting, 11.365. the child is positioned in front of the torso of his mother and both figures are surrounded by a mandorla shape. In these images, as with the examples discussed above, the idea of the Incarnation is emphasized and the Virgin's role as ïlieotokos is made clear.

The tradition of the Byzantine Theotokos images is dso evident in Romanesque Maria. sculpture, a second source for the Trecento Madonna del Parto. It should be remembered that painted and sculptural foms often had significant influence upon each other in the Middle Ages due to their proximity and function within Christian devotional contexts. Free standing Christian sculpture in Western Europe likely had its origins in Carolingian art of the ninth century, which saw a fusion of a nurnber of sources: Greek, Roman, Constantinian, Justinian and indigenous pagan cult images." Due to its Mly plastic foxm, sculpture was a particularly potent didactic tool and was able to express a concept with more immediacy than a two dimensional representation. Sculpture by its very nature reached out to the worshipper in appearance and form, even while hieratic conventions were employed to maintain the divuiity of the object. In this way sculpted images ofien functioned as an effective bridge, or mediator, between human and divine? Particularly relevant to this discussion are the Throne of Wisdom and Vierge Ouvrante sculptural types, which both clearly illustrate Incarnation dogma. In the Throne of Wisdom, the Mother of God is represented seated on a throne with her son in her lap. He is entirely contained within the boundaries of her body, a form that is reminiscent of the previously discussed Nikopoia type, as can be seen in the

"During the period after the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, the use of icons was given limited approval through the idea that honour given to an image was conferred to the prototype. This did not, however, eliminate the debate over images. In fact the official position wivithin the court of Charlemagne was opposed to the worship of images, and it was stipulated that they were to be used in a strictly didactic manner. Ilene Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972) pp.7 1-80. "Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, p.9. twelfth century Morgan Madonna in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (fig.

1S)." In such sculptures also called the sedes sapientiae, the complex meaning of the Incarnation is conveyed through very simple iconography with few variations." Mary is presented to the viewer as both a human mother and Theotokos, chosen by Divine Will. Several of Mary's altemate roles are also implied, çuch as the throne for the Incarnation of Divine Wisdom, or the seat of the Logos incamate and cathedra? This iconographie type flourished in the later Middle Ages and finally came to prominence at the end of the twelfth century in the decorative programmes of the stone tyrnpana of the great cathedrals of Western Europe." Indeed, examples of this form continued to be produced in the thirteenth centmy, such as an enthroned Tuscan Madonna and Child in the Abbazia di SanttAntimo near Montalcino, fiom about 1262 (fig. 16)" Although this example reflects the naturalistic influence of the emerging Gothic style, the sculpture clearly remains very close to the older Throne of Wisdorn type. The Vierge Ouvrante, or Schreinmadonna, also found throughout Europe in the late Middle Ages, is similar to the earlier Throne of Wisdom and the contemporary Madonna del Parto, in that it represents the Incarnation. The Vierge Owrante type was a

Ilene Forsyth refers to this sculpure as the Morgan Madonna, as it was a gifi to the museum by J. Pierpont Morgan in 19 16. It provides a clear example of a widespread type, and is probably fiom a workshop in Auvergne, firom which other exarnples also exist. It is polychrorned walnut from the second half of the twelflh century and stands 78.7cm high. Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, p.156. "Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, pp.24-25. %e meaaings of the sculpture type are explained in depth in the fint two chapters of Ilene Forsyth's book, The Throne of Wisdorn. "Ilene Forsyth specifically mentions the Incarnation portal at Chartres. The Throne of Wisdom was rare by the end of the twelfth century, and Forsyth contends that Meenth- cenhuy images of the Virgin becarne less al1 encompassing, tending to focus on one aspect of the Virgin. Fonyth, The Throne of Wisdom, pp.29-30. "This piece was made by an anonymous Umbrian sculpter, c. 1262, and according to Alessandro Bagnoli represents a 1st gasp of the Romanesque in Tuscany. It is 153 cm high. In, Alessandro Bagnoli, Sculture Dipinta: Maestri di Zegname e pittori a Siena 1250-1450 (Siena: Centro Di, 1987) pp. 16-1 8. wooden, fiee standing sculpture of the Virgin with hinged doors on the £?ont of her body that could be opened to reveal the sculpted contents of hcr ~ornb.~It was common for the exterior of images of this kind to feahire a seated, or enthroned Madoma and Child. A well presewed example from Cologne, that is dated to around 1300, cm be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (fig. 17). In this instance, the extenor presents a Madonna Lactans, perhaps referring to the vision of Bernard of Clairvaux in which he was spiritually nourished through being suckled by the Virgin." The inside of the doors are painted with scenes fiom the life of the Virgin. When opened, the Trinity is revealed inside of Mary (fig. 18). God the Father appears on a throne and would have been represented holding the body of Christ on the cross before him with the dove of the Holy Spirit attatched to his chest. This would have provided an image of a complete Mercy Seat ~rinity." As is apparent fiom the illustration, the actual body of Christ is now missing as well as the dove. In fact, in many of the suMving examples of the Vierge Ouvrante, the body of the cmified Chnst is missing, Ieading to the theory that many of these images were later converted to store the sacrament? In this case, the symbolic

4gHenkVan Os writes that although they were found throughout Europe very few have sunrived to this day. Henk Van Os, meArt of Devotion In the Late Midde Ages in Europe: 1.300-1500 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994) p.56. Louis Réau mentions that there were also images of Saint Anne with the Virgin and Chnst inside her womb. However, it shouid be noted that whether it is Mary or Anne, she is literally displaying the fruits of her womb. Louis Réau, L'iconographie de Z'ari chrétien 2 (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1957) p.92. See also Yrjo Hirn, The Sacred Shrine. A Study of Poetiy und Art of the Catholic Church (London: Macmillan and Co., 1912) p.32 1. s"Henk Van Os mentions this image as the only known example that uses the Madonna Lactans, and relates it to Bernard's vision. Van Os, The Art ofDevotion, pp.52-54. "The original appearance of this Trinity is described by Henk Van Os in The Art of Devotion, p.55. A much later example of the iconography can be found in Masaccio's famous Trinity fresco from the first half of the fifieenth century in Santa Maria Novella in Florence. "Van Os, The Art of Devotion, pp.56-57. representation of the Incarnation would be replaced by the sacramental "body" of Christ to be taken at communion. Throughout the thirteenth century, the appearance of the Vierge Ouvrante, dong with other images of the Virgin, becarne less hieratic, more naturaiistic and, therefore, more accessible to the medieval worshipper. However, some hieratic conventions associated with power and magic still continued, such as the glaring eyes that can be traced back to impenal portraiture. Indeed, Medieval optical theory dictated that the spirit of a figure could emanate from the eye like a ray, trapping beholders in its gaze. Such elements, that emphasized divinity, would help the worshipper see the statue as alive." Vierge Ouvrunfe sculptures would have functioned in several ways. Many of the images of this type were large, intended for liturgical use in churches. However, the above mentioned example fiom Cologne is small, and was thus likely intended for pnvate devotionai practice? In terms of pnvate devotional use, a Vierge Ouvrante could be contemplated during prayer, providing a focus for meditation. An actual three dimensionai object could help the individual concentrate on the theologicd mystery of the Incarnation, perhaps even allowing the event to be relived in the rnind. The achievement of salvation was aided by this type of meditation in which events were "seen" by the devotee as if they had been there and experienced it for themselves, as described in the contemporary religious text Meditationes Vitae Christi."

53Thecombination of hieratic and human elements is discussed in Michael Camille, The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-malgng in Medieval Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) pp.222-223. Ilene Forsyth explains that the hieratic elements emphasized divinity, dlowing the worshipper to see the divine presence of that which was represented. Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, p.9. "~t36.8cm high, it is the smallest statue of the type ever found, and it may have corne fiom a ce11 in a convent near Cologne. Van Os, The Art of Devotion, pp.55-56. "Henk Van Os describes the practice of 'reliving' sacred events by the devotee, particularly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Van Os, The Art of Devotion, p.55. See also, Meditutions on the Life of Christ: An Illustrated Manuscripi of the Fourteenlh Cenrury (Ms. Ital. 115 Paris Bibi-Nat.), ed. Isa Ragusa and Rosalie B. Green (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 196 2). Similarly, in a public devotional context, the Vierge Ouvrante could bring the miracle of the Incarnation to life for the worshippers. It functioned as a powerful didactic tool, particularly when used in specific liturgical ceremonies or dramas. Cult statues such as these were concealed behind curtains that could be drawn aside, indicating that the object was only to be viewed at certain thes, thus increasing the drama of the revelation when it occured." The Vierge Ouvrante emphasized the Virgin's intimate and physical contact with God, qualities that made her a uniquely direct and particularly effective intercessor. Mary's role as the vehicle through which the Trinity became flesh is made

explicit through the door that literally opens to let God into the world, at the same the providing movement and action for the w~rshippers.~This is illustrated by a seventeenth-century description of the ritual use of one rare example in England, 'Our Lady of Boulton' at Durham Cathedral:

... ou ye fihalter was a rnUveylous lyvelye and bewtifull Image of the picture of our Ladie socalled the Lady of boultone, whiche picture was maide to open wth gyml[2 leaves] from her breaste downdward. And wth in ye said image was wrowghte and pictured the Image of our saviour, mveylouse Wiegilted houldinge uppe his handes, and holding a fair & large crucifuc of christ al1 of gold, the whiche Crucifix was to be taiken fourthe euy good fiidaie and euy man woncke] did crepe unto it that was in yt churche as that Daye. And ther after yt was houng upe againe within the said imrnage and euy principal1 Daie the said immage was opened that euy man might see pictured within her, the father, the sonne, and the holy ghost, rnost curiouslye and fynely gilted. And both the sides wth in her verie fjmely vemyshed with grene vernishe and floweres of goulde whiche was a goodly sighte for al1 the behodders therof."

The Gothic Idol, pp.222-228. %amille, The Gothic Idol, pp.230-232. 58Thisexerpt is fiom a manuscript roll thought to have been witten shortly alter 1593, Ca. 1600 reproduced in, "Rites of Durham, being a description or Brief Declaration of al1 the ancient monuments, Rites & Customs Belonging or Being Within the Monastical Church of Durham before the Suppression. Wntten 1593." The Publications of the Surtees Socie!y 107 (1903) p.30. See also Camille, The Gothic Idol, pp.230-232. The fact that the Trinity image was reveaied and the crucifix removed and carrïed around the church on special occasions demonstrates how powemil the image was held to be. It was only on principal festivals that the action symbolic of the Incarnation occured. The effectiveness of the Vierge Ouvrante in a public devotional context was also recognized by those who were concemed about its possible negative idluences, for example Jean Gerson the fifieenth-cenhuy Chancellor of the University of Paris:

Images like this one which have the Trinity in their abdomen as if the entire Trinity assumed flesh in the Virgin Mary ...there is no beauty and devotion in such works, and they may well be the cause of error and indevoti~n.~~

Gerson belived that such an image that could cause confusion in terms of its theological message. His criticisrn reveals an acceptance of the power of the image, to the extent that he feared it could misdirect devotion. In fact, in devotional practice the distinction between the actud and the represented almost disappeared, particularly with polychromed wooden sculptures such as the Vierge Ouvrante. Three dimensional sculpture was seen as more realistic than two dimensional images, particularly after the twelfth century when many statues were recorded as doing "human"things, such as crying, kissing, bleeding and lactating. Due to the effectiveness of this realism, sculpture had a marked influence on painting in the Trecento and Q~attrocento.~~ Notably, the iconographie influence of the Vierge Ouvranfe can be seen in some images of the naturdistic Madonna del Parto. Fundamentally, the two types are related in terms of their theological meaning, both emphasizing the Incarnation of God on earth through Mary. However, there are also symbolic similarities. The representations of the Madonna del Porto in which the gown of the Virgin appears to open as if it were a door, echo the action of the doors in the sculpted images. Piero della Francesca's well known

S9Chancei10rGerson, Christmas Day sermon of 1402, quoted in Camille, The Gothic IdoZ, p.232. 60PaoIetti,"Wooden Sculpture in Italy as Sacrai Presence," pp.85-91. fiesco from the mid-fifieenth century provides an example of the use of this kind of symbolism (fig. 19). In Piero's Madonna del Parto, the Virgin draws attention to the opening in her dress with her hand, thereby communicating the location of the Word made Flesh within her womb, and her role as bearer of Christ.

The Piero fiesco is actually one of the latest examples in the representational tradition established in Tuscany at the begianllig of the fourteenth century. Significantiy, this image of the Incarnation, and its Trecento predecessoe, are based on a visuai language different fiom that employed in the sources discussed above. Thus, although the rneaning is similar, the representation is infûsed with a realism not apparent in the Byzantine or sculptural examples. It was the emerging Italian Romanesque and Gothic naturalism that provided a source for the appearance of the Trecento Madonna del Parto images. The influence of naturalism became apparent during the Duecento, when Italian icons began to be produced in greater numbers. They continued to reflect the influence of Eastern models, but at the sarne time the hieratic and doof qualities were disappearing, and there was more of an interest in reproducing life as it was seen? Artists began to explore the naturai world that surrounded them as had not been done since Antiquity." Toward the end of the thirteenth century, in Itaiy, the Western revival of antique Eastern art, was followed or even superceded by an interest in the local heritage of Roman and early Christian ad3An interest that was evident through a general move away fiom the symbolic, mysticd images that had been produced for a monastic context, towards a more personalized and accessible form of religious representation more suited to a lay audience. Saintly acts, miracles and good works were presented to the viewers as taking

61Belting,Likeness and Presence, pp.349-353. "Smart, The Davn of ltaliun Painting, p. 1. "Kitzinger, "The Byzantine Contribution to Western Art of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries," pp.42-43. place in more familiar human circumstances." Although there were many factors that contributed to the development of a new language of painting in Tuscany, the rise of the mendicant orders, particufarly Franciscanism, stands out as one of the most influentid. The interest in the natural world that is characteristic of the Franciscan Order reflects the beliefs and actions of St Francis himself. His persona1 influence cannot be ignored as he maintained almost complete control over the rapidly growing Order during his lifetime. However, St. Francis' own weli documented interest in nature did not appear in a vacuum; rather he emerged out of a context of growing European interest in observed nature and Christian nature legend~.~As Vincent Moleta has pointed out, "The accidents of geography and chronology conspired to make the cult of St. Francis and the rise of a distinctive naturalistic painting style in central Italy go hand in hand across the late Duecento."' After the death of the Saint, the Friars Minor continued to increase in number establishing many urban churches. Thus, the subjects and styles they patronized had tremendous Muence over emerging Trecento painting. One of the most important subjects commissioned by the nascent Franciscan movement was the life of St. Francis himself. Images could aid in the promotion of the popular cult of Francis much more effectively than written biographies, as much of the

MFrederickAntal believes that the naturdism of this period in Florence reflects the rise to power of the bourgeois merchant class, whose patronage had the effect of secularizing religious art. The presentation of religious events in a contemporary context allowed the reality of the contemporary world to be seen as adequate preparation for the next world. Representations of holy events became more accessible to al1 of society, allowing the wealthy classes to present the ideals they approved of to the populace in a very direct rnanner. Frederick Antal, Florentine Painting and its Social Background (London: The Chiswick Press, 1947) pp. 120- 121. dSEdwardArmstrong discusses this context of a pan-European interest in nature in, St. Francis: Nature Mystic. The derivation and signzjkance of nature stories in the Franciscun Legend (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973). MVincentMo leta, From St. Francis to Giotto: The Influence of SI. Francis on EarZy Itulian Art and Liierature (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983) p. 13. population was illiterate." Initially, pictonal episodes of the lives of the founding Franciscan saints, specifically Francis and Clare, rnainiy took the form of historiated dossals. The genre of historiated dossais of saints was particular to the late Duecento and early Trecento. These narrative sequences made canonized sainthood visible to the populace, thereby aiding the popularization of saintly cults. In an era of increasing papal control over the cults of saints, such images fiinctioned to promote the authorized histories of saints and to validate their sanctification by presenting the fulfillment of the necessary criteria for sainthood." In order to aid in the growth of the Franciscan rnovement?the life of Francis needed to be presented in a tangible way, providing an eyewitness account of the veracity of the stones." Furthemore, many of the tales that make up the life of Francis required a greater attention to nature on the part of artists that represented them, for example, the well known story of the Sermon to the Birds?' As told in Thomas of Celano's First Life, the tale demands specific and distinguishable birds, mentionhg that doves, crows and daws were al1 present in the Spoleto valley that day. In order to provide an accurate translation from the written biography to an image, there needed to be some differentiation between types of birds. The episode of the Sermon to the Birds reveals much about St. Francis' personal attitude towards nature. As the narrative unfolds, Francis preaches to the assembled birds.

Celano descnbes the Saint's joy when he realized that the birds were not afiaid of him and emphasizes that "fiom that day on, he solicitously adrnonished dl birds, al1 animals

67RonaGo ffen, Spirituality in Conflict: Saint Francis and Giotto 's Bardi Chape1 (London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988) p.24. 68Fora discussion of the role of the Franciscan historiated dossal in church politics, see Jeryldene Wood, "Perceptions of Holiness in Thirteenth-Century Italian Painting: Clare of Assisi," Art History 14 (199 1) pp.30 1-328. 69Goffen,Spirituality in Conflict, pp.24-25. "See, Servus Gieben and Vincent Criscuolo, Fruncesco dYssisi, Attraverso 1'lmmagine (Rome: Istituto Storico dei Cappucini, 1992) pp.35-48. and reptiles, and even creatures that have no feeling, to praise and love their Creator.""

Francis was said to have loved ali creatures and called them brother and sister. He loved them on account of their Creator and in honor of their Creator. Because he was favoured by God, the animais were not afkaid of Francis and came to him. For those who followed

him, this love of nature and the way creatures obeyed him was miraculou and was Merproof of his sanctity? There are tales of his interactions with rabbits, lambs, fish, even the vicious Wolf of Gubbio. The spirit of Francis, as expressed in his biographies, was characterized by this love and acceptance of the beauty of the created world. " Consequently, the movement he founded encouraged the development of a new naturalistic style of art. Another aspect of Francis' devotion that contributed to realism in art was his interest in reliving or experiencing the events of the Gospels through prayer and meditation. The idea of witnessing sacred moments, a very important facet of medieval devotional practice, was evident in both the personal prayer and the public preaching of St. Francis. Celano describes Francis' own intention to observe the Gospel: "He would recall Christ's words through persistent meditation and bring to mind his deeds through the most penetrating c~nsideration."~~On a public scale, the Nativity scene, created by Francis at Greccio, provides a telling exarnple of the saint's intense interest in the Gospel stories and how he hoped they would be used to focus devotions:

1wish to do something that will recall to memory the little Child who was bom in Bethlehem and set before our bodily eyes in some way the

"Thomas of Celano, "How Francis Preached to the Birds and of the obedience of creatures," and "First Life of St. Francis," St. Francis of Assisi, Writings and Eariy Biog~aphies.English Omnibus of the Sourcesfor the Lve of St. Francis, ed. Maion Habig (London: The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1979) pp.277-280. nThomas of Celano, "First Life of St. Francis," English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St. Francis, pp.225-355. 73Smart,The Dawn of Italian Painting, p.6. 'Thomas of Celano, "First Life of St. Francis," English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St. Francis, pp.299-302. inconveniences of his infant needs, how he lay in a manger, how, with an ox and an ass standing by, he lay upon the hay where he had been placed."

By recreating the Nativity using real people and anirnals, Francis could bring the event to life for the people of Greccio and achieve his intention of providing a focus for their prayer and contemplation. Painted representations could function in a similar manner and Francis' own belief in the power of images af5ected their growth in popularity within the Order of the Frks Minor. Francis subscnbed to the belief that what was represented could also be present; that, in other words, the figure represented could inhabit the image so that it could, in effect, corne to life." Therefore, the more realistic or naturdistic an image was the more effective it could be in this capacity. Subsequently, it became more common for artists to be valued for their ability to reproduce nahue. Boccaccio's description of Giotto, in the Deeumeron, provides an example of this tendency:

Giotto, was a man of such outstanding genius that there was nothing in the whole world of creation that he could not depict with his stylus, Pen, or brush. And so faithful did he remain to Nature (who is the mother and the motive force of al1 created things, via the constant rotation of the heavens), that whatever he depicted had the appearance, not of a reproduction, but of the thing itself, so that one very often finds, with the works of Giotto, that people's eyes are deceived and they mistake the picture for the real thing."

The idea of painting something so close to nature that it could be mistaken for "the reai thing" was particularly desirable in the context of contemporary devotional practice.

7SThomasof Celano, "First Life of St. Francis," English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St. Francis, p.300. 76Fora discussion of the sacral presence inherent in religious images see also Richard Trexler, Public Li$e in Renaissance Florence (London: Academic Press, 1980) pp.54-73. 77Bo~~a~~iois most interested in Giotto's naturalism in terrns of its relation to classical Roman art. Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, tram. G.H. McWilliam (London: Penguin Books, 1972) p.457. Interest in naturalism was not only apparent in art; it was aiso evident in contemporary religious litentture. Religious texts and biographies of saints began to appea., often written in the vernacular. The humaninng of religious writing was the literary equivalent to the emerging pictonal naturaiism of the thiaeenth and early fourteenth centuries.'' Perhaps one of the best known examples fiom this time is the Meditationes Vitae Christi, or the Meditations on the Life of Christ. This late Duecento

text, at one tirne thought to have been written by Saint Bonaventure, was most likely written by a Franciscan FBar for a nun of the Poor Clares to help her in her prayer~.~~In the Mediîations, many details are added to the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ to make the events seem more realistic and nat~ral.~"As with pictorial images, the devotee was expected to experience the sacred events through meditation in order to understand them better. Instructing the reader, the author writes: "leam al1 the things said and done as though you were present."" He continues, explaining:

I shall tell them to you as they occured or they might have occured according to the devout belief of the imagination and the varying interpretation of the mind ...if you wish to profit you must be present at the sarne things that it is related that Christ did and said, joyfully and rightly, leaving behind dl other cares and anxieties."

"Rona Goffen descnbes the use of the vernacular in religious writing as comparable to the naturaiism apparent in religious painting. Rona Goffen, SpirituaIity in Conflict, pp.24-25. %enk van Os writes that the Meditatiom emphasizes the details of the Virgin's life because she huictioned as a role mode1 for the Poor Clares. Van Os, The Art of Devotion, p.13ff. 9nthe introduction to the Meditations, Isa Ragusa and Rosalie Green describe how the author mentions that Christ preferred his mother's cooking over anyone else's as an exarnple of a naturalistic and humanidg detail. Meditatiom, xxii. See also, F.P. Pickering, Literature und Art in the Middle Ages (London: Macmillan and Co., 1970) pp.23 7-23 8. "Meditations, p. 15. "Meditations. p. 5. The Meditatom was quickly translated into many languages. Devotional ideas of the kind recorded there seem to have intluenced many of the visual representations of the period.

The influence of this developing naturalism becomes apparent when one tum back to the Trecento images of the Madonna del Parto. The shift away fiom Byzantine symbolic language has aiready occurred, as cm be seen in two closely related Florentine images fiom the mid Trecento. They are both fiescoes, the only ones of this subject known to survive, and both now exist only in a hgmentary condition. The first is Taddeo Gaddi's Mudonna del Parto, completed around 1355, in San Francesco di Paola (fig. 20)." The second is a similar image, likely executed shortly afler the Gaddi, by Nardo di Cione or someone near him, painted in fresco in San Lorenzo (fig. 21)." They both typically hold a book in their left hands and gesture with their right hands." Both of these Madonnas stand in realistic three-dimensional architectural niches, supported by colomettes. The fabric of their clothing, which falls over their wombs, accentuates their pregnant shapes. They both have delicate transparent veils covering their heads, and both seem to draw their mantles protectively around theu bodies. The aFor information on the history of the Church of San Francesco di Paola, formerly San Giuseppe, see Walter and Elisabeth Paatz, Die Kirche von Florenz. Ein Kunstgeschichtliches Handbuch (Frankfurt: Wissençchaftliche Beitrage, Kultunvissenschaftliche ReiheJ952) pp.359-375. However, as the fiesco by Gaddi was not rediscovered until 1964, it is not mentioned in this volume. "Andrew Ladis dates the Taddeo Gaddi close to 1355, and suggests that the other, by "an artist near Nardo," is of a sunilar date. Ladis, Taddeo Gaddi, p. 169. Caroline Feudale points out that the Nardesque fiagment has been attributed to Nardo di Cione and to Nicc018 di Tommaso (in Ofber 1934 III, V, p.28, note 1). See, Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madonna del Parto," p. 10. Brendan Cassidy misreads Feudale and assumes there are two works, one by Nardo and one by Niccolo, not realizing that Offner and Feudale are achially describing the same image. Cassidy, "A Relic, Some Pictures and the Mothers of Florence," p.98. ''Unlike any of the other images, the hado Madonna is wearing a ring, visible on her right hand. Gaddi Madonna emphasizes her pregnancy with the gesture of her right hand, a supportive gesture below her womb. She also wears a knotted girdle or belt, the bottom of which is no longer visible. The Nardo Madonna rests her hand above the swelling under her dress. In both, the colours are soft and the fiesh tones are natural. Al1 of these representational elements reflect the new visual language of nahilalism in late medieval Tuscan art.

The Virgin's role as God Bearer has been naturalized in the Tuscan Trecento Madonna del Parto images. The Christ Child is no longer a visible component, consequently the human aspects of the Virgin's pregnancy and motherhood are stressed.

Despite the difference in the appearance of the images, their central theological meaning -- the Incarnation - remains consistent with earlier works. Although the symbolism of the Madonna del Porto seems more simple than its predecessors, the meaning remains complex, reflecting the increasing importance of Marian devotion that occured within the Church between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Western Europe. It is now to the theologicai context and symbolic meaning of the Madonna del Parto that this study will m. Chapter Two

Syrnbolic Meaning: A Systematic Study of the Iconography of the Madonna del Purto. The naturalistic images of the Mudonna del Parto which developed in Tuscany during the Trecento appear to represent the Virgin's materna1 role in a simple and straightforward manner. However, their iconographie meaning is achially highly complex. Although d of these images porûay the Incarnation, the representations differ slightly to emphasize distinct elements of the cult of the Virgin. In this chapter, several of the most important theologicai aspects of the Virgin evident in the images of the Madonna del Purio will be explored. This study will focus initially on the humanity and humility of the Mother of Christ, which the Virgin passed on to her son. Her status as Ark of the New Covenant will then be discussed, followed by an analysis of her role as the triumpbant Queen of Heaven and its connection to her possible corporal Assurnption. Finally, several aspects of the Virgin's position as an intercessor on behalf of humankind will be addressed, including the role played by one of her relics, her sacred girdle. In order to decipher the symbolic meanings of the Madonna del Parto, contemporary religious literature will be considered, as it is in the context of this literature that the type emerged. Writings of theologians and more popular religious texts acted as sources for the images of Mary produced between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. Several initial textual examples can be used to illuminate the complexity inherent in the role of the Virgin at this the. The discussion necessarily begins with the central Christian mystery of the Incarnation because theologically the glorification of the Vugin was dependent on her participation in that event alone. At the same tirne, the Incarnation itself could not have occurred without her. Clarification of the position of the Virgin in ternis of the Incarnation can be found in the writings of Saint Bonaventure, particularly in The Breviloquium, written in 1257, the year Bonaventure was asked to head the Franciscan Order. The clarity of this text denves fiom the fact that it acted as a manual of theology explaining what beliefs should be held and preached by the Friars Minor. in part IV of this work, entitled "On the incarnation of the Word," it is written:

...we mut consider briefly the incarnation of the Word; for through this Word Made Flesh was wrought the salvation and restoration of mankind. Nor was this because God could not have saved and fieed the human race in some other way; but because no other way would have been so fining and so adapted, alike to the Redeemer, the redeemed, and the nature of the redemption itself?

Although the Virgin is not specificdly mentioned in this statement on the Incarnation, her importance can be inferred nom it. In the above passage, it is apparent that the moment of the Incarnation of God was considered the beginning of the salvation and redemption of the human race. As Bonaventure emphasizes, the nature of the redemption was carefully planned to fit the nature of the transgression, creating a parallel between Old and New Testaments. Thus, the Virgin was positioned as the new Eve, mater ominum, the second mother of humanity, righting the wrongs of the first. Her consent was considered to have been necessary in order for her to conceive, an action that echoed Eve's acquiesence at the time of the Fall. As a consequence, the active participation of the Virgin Mary made possible the process of salvation. Indeed, Mary's choice in assumhg her role in the process is emphasized in the extremely popular early fourteenth-century text Meditafions on the Life of Christ. God instructs Gabriel to, "tell her that my Son, desiring her beauty, has chosen her as His mother. Beg her to receive Him with gladness, for 1have ordered the salvation of the human race to be effected by her and will forget the injury done to me. 'lg7

MBonaventure(d. 1274), The Breviloquium 4, ch. 1, The Worhof Bonaventure, Cardinal, Seraphic Doctor and Saint 2, trans. José de Vinck (Paterson, N.J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1963) p. 143. "Meditut ions on the Life of Christ: an illustrated manuscript of the fourteenth century, eds. Isa Ragusa and Rosalie B. Green, trans. Isa Ragusa (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 196 1) p. 1 5. Therefore, in the religious literature of the period, Mary's active role in the Incarnation established her theological importance. In fact, many diverse but intercomected aspects of her cdt developed out of that role, and her symbolic importance manifested itself ultimately in a variety of ways. A second excerpt fiom Bonaventure's discussion of the Incarnation in the Breviloquium reveals several of the Virpin's important attributes:

Concerning how the incarnation carne about, the following must be held. When the angel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary the mystery of the incarnation to be accomplished within her, she believed it, desired it, and consented to it: whereupon she was sanctified and made fnutful by the ovenhadowing of the Holy Spirit. Through His power, "virginal was her conceiving of the Son of God, virginal her birth-giving, and virginal her state after deliverance." [Augustine, Sermones, 196, 1 :1 ; cf. 5 1, 1 1: 81 She conceived not only a body, but a body with a soul, a body united to the Word and fiee fiom the stain of sin, a body dl-holy and irnmaculate. That is why she is called the Mother of God, and is yet also the most sweet Virgin ~ary."

Thus, through Bonaventure's description of how the Incarnation occured, a number of different facets of Mary's role become clear. Initially, the necessity of her consent is emphasized, allowing ber to be the new mother of mankind. Upon consent she is sanctified as the tabernacle of the Lord and is recognized as the Ark of the New Covenant. Her rniraculous fertility, entirely without the stain of concupiscence, results in her etemal incorruptibility, and is the basis of the argument in support of her corporal Assumption. The belief in the Assumption is, in turn, related to her position as Queen of Heaven. Finally, as Bonaventure states, at the same time as being the awe inspiring "Mother of God" she is also "the most sweet Virgin Mary," a caring mother, as well as an effective and powerfd intercessor on behalf of mankind. Many of the diverse and intercomected roles of the Virgin, apparent in Bonaventure's description of the Incarnation, are also reflected in images of her. Indeed,

"The Breviloquiirm 4, ch.3, p. 150. the tradition of Incarnation representations, out of which the Madonna del Parto emerged, demonstrates that an apparently uncomplicated image cmpresent several theological ideas to the viewer at one the. For example, Ilene Forsyth has shown this with Romanesque Throne of Wisdom sculptures, and has pointed out how they provide a "concise expression of the Incarnation dogrna."" In the sculptures, Mary is portrayed as a human mother with her son on her lap, while also being the Virgin enthroned in majesty with Christ as sovereign. Furthemore, as the agency through which the Incarnation was realized, she is Theotokos and the bearer of wisdom or the throne for the Incarnation of Divine Wisdom, dso known as sedes sapientiae." In a similar manner, the naturalistic Mudonna del Parto images are simple in appearance but complex in meaning. Textual sources to be exarnined in the iconographie interpretation of the Madonna del Parto include the works of the twelfth century Cistercian monastic saint, Bernard of Clairvaux, whose devotion to the Virgin is legendary, and the thirteenth century theologim saint, Bonaventure, who was extremely influentid in terms of the development of Franciscan doctrine. More popular compilations of religious narratives, such as the Medilations on the Life of Christ, and The Golden Legend will also be con~idered.~'Texts such as these provide most of the information on the life of the Virgin. They draw almost exclusively on apocryphal narratives, as there is a notable Iack of information on the Mother of Christ in the New Testament. The apocryphal sources are generaily quite early, such as the Protoevangelium of James, probably written in the second cenhÿy afler Christ? This elaboration of Luke's gospel narrative offered a

-- - 'qlene Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972) p. 1. Torsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, pp. 1-24. 91TheDominican monk Jacobus de Voragine wrote The Golden Legend around 1260. Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, 2 vols., trans.William Granger Ryan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). PfTheearliest extant manuscript is a thirdîentury Greek papyrus, based on several sources: Jewish scnptures, the Gospels of Manhew and Luke, and oral and written local relatively detailed account of the early life of Mary. Other works influentid to medieval devotional wrïting included the second century Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the De Nativitate Mariae, the latter now thought to be a ninth-century work*

This study will now tum to the Madonnu de2 Parto images, and begin with the representation of the Virgin as a pregnant human woman. Emphasis on the hmanity of Mary's pregnancy and motherhood is apparent in al1 of the naturalistic images. However, it is the most basic panel, the Madonna del Pmto in Prato, that will be used as an example (fig. 1). In this work the viewer is presented with a recognizeable image of a pregnant woman, as opposed to the divine Queen of the Byzantine representations. Rather than a schematized exterior womb, the Prato Madonna's pregnancy is revealed through the naturdism of her obviously expanded abdomen which is emphasized by her high belt and the folds of her dress. Such interest in the humanity of the Virgin, reinforced another rnedieval concern, the humanity of Christ. Indeed, many theological authors of the Middle Ages addressed the practical problem of how exactly Christ's combined humanity and divinity occured. What is surprising, fiom a late twentieth-century point of view, is that religious scholars were interested in establishing a scientific basis for their theones. However, the information on the biology of conception available to them at the thewas inhented, ofien indirectiy, f?om ancient Greek philosophers and physicians and was charactenzed by varied and often opposing views?

--- traditions. See "Protoevangelium of James," The merGospel~: Non-Cunonical Gospel Texts, ed. Ron Cameron (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1982) pp. 107- 12 1. "Sarah M. Horrall, introduction to Thomas of Hales, The Lyfof Oure Lady: The ME Translation of 77zomas of Hales' Vita Sancte Marie trans. and ed. Sarah M. Horrall (Heidelberg: Car1 Winter-Universitatsverlag, 1985) p. 10. "Clarissa Atkinson, "Physiological Motherhood: The Wandering Womb," The Oldest Vocation: Christian Motherhood in the Middle Ages (Ithaca: Comell University Press, 199 1) pp.23-63. One medieval theory, inhented from Stoicism, effectively negated the female role in the reproductive process. It was believed that the female provided none of the matter for a child and only a smdl amount of the soul, the impetus for conception coming instead from the semen of the father. This was problematic in relation to Christ as it biologically negated his humanity. Marina Warner has showthat this view could be related to hnunciation and Incarnation images that portrayed the infant Mly forrned within the body of ~ar~."The possible negation of Christ's humanity in such images of the ~nnunciationwas recognized by the fifieenth-century archbishop of Florence, St. htonino, who included it in a list of heretical subjects:

Painters are to be blamed when they paint things contrary to our faith... when in the Annunciation, they represent a small infant Jesus in the Virgin's womb, as if the body he took on were not of her substance."

A more natural representation of the pregnancy of the Virgin, in contrast, could rnake clear her humanity, and by extension the humanity of her child. This is not to Say that images displaying the contents of Mary's womb disappeared, but rather that a different, more human aspect of conception could now be emphasized. Further, this humanity was supported by the Aristotelian theory, considered authoritative throughout the Middle Ages, that held that the woman provided the matter of the embryo white the man provided the soul. The woman is not active in this scenario, as the formative process is attributed entirely to the male." The Church accepted this theory, partly due to the support of St. Thomas Aquinas. Significantly, Albe- Magnus' teacher of Thomas Aquinas, had presented siinilar beliefs in his scientific writings. For

- - -- PS Marina Wamer, Alone of Al1 her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary (London: Picador, 1990) pp. 39-40. 'Vatonho, d. 1459, quoted in Michael Baxandail, Painting and Experience in Fijieenth Century Italy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972) p.43. "Marina Warner explains that the Aristotelian view of chi1dbh-h was endorsed by Saint Thomas Acquinas, d. 1274, thus becoming part of church teaching. See Warner, AZone of AU her Sex, p.44. example, in De Animalibus the man's spexm was described as the active or formative agent, while the woman's sperm served as the material basis for con~eption.~~ Therefore, in the Aristotelian view, Christ would have received his flesh fiom his mother, and thus his humanity as well. Indeed, Bernard of Clairvaux had already written in his twelflh-century Homilies in Praise of the Blessed Virgïn Mary: "He was neither entirely from God nor entirely fiorn the Virgin, yet he was Mly God's son and also fûlly the Virgin's son."" Bernard goes on to dari& the above statement explaining:

He who cornes from the bosom of the father into your womb will not oniy overshadow you, he will even take to himself something of your substance. He who is aheady the Son of God begotten of the Father before all ages will hence forth be acknowledged to be your son as wel1.lm

In other words, Christ was the son of the wornan Mary as well as the son of God, enabling him to be both human and divine at the same time. Bonaventure, who was very farniliar with the writings of Aristotle through St. Augustine, continued to express similar views in the thirteenth century. Bonaventure explained that the Incarnation involved the union of the Godhead and flesh, brought about by the Trinity, with the Virgin participating as the "con~eiver."'~'The concept was clarified Merin popu1a.r texts such as the mid-thirteenth century Vita Sancte Marie by the English Franciscan Thomas of Hales. The Vita, as with other texts of the penod, provides a complete life of the Virgin in an intimate and appealing manner:

-- - - 98AIbe~sMagnus or Albert the Great (d. l28O), Man and the Beasts, De Animalibus 22- 26, trans. James J. Scanlan (Binghamton: Medievd and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1987) p.59. It should be noted, however, that in the case of ksus, Albertus Magnus believed that he was bom of the blood of Mary and not the flesh. Clearly, he differentiates between ordinary conception and that of Christ. See Hilda Graef, Mary, A History of Docirine and Devotion (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1963) p.277. qemard of Clairvaux (d. 11 53), Hornily 3, in Magnificat: Homilies in Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Bernard of Clairvaux and Amadeus of Lausanne, trans. Marie- Bernard Said and Grace Perigo (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1979) p.36. '%emard of Clairvaux, Homily 4, in Magnificat, p.50. 'O' Bonaventure, The Breviloquium 4, ch. 1-3, pp. 143- 153. And so she conceivede the sone of God the Fadir, not bi wille of flesh, neither bi wille of man, that is bi coupling & seed of man & woman, but bi the good plessunce [desire] of the Fadir ...God to be maad in flesh and to be maad man of hir chaast & undefouled flesh & blood, and fillede the dette of the firste modido2

Emphasis on the Virgin's natural pregnancy, indicative of the contemporary interest in the hurnanity of Christ, is apparent in the Prato panel. Such Madonna del Parto images are quite different from their Byzantine predecessors, as discussed in the fist chapter. In Byzantine examples, the ofien regal Virgin presents her Son to the viewer within a mandorla in fiont of her body (fig.6). In contrast, the naturalistic images portray a Virgin who is more approachable rather than regal and quasidivine in appearance. In this way, her experience can seem accessible to ordinary women.

Another quality of the Virgin evident in the simplest Madonna del Parto images is her humility. Mary's humility was considered a necessary precondition for her role as Mother of Christ by Bernard of Clairvaux who wrote:

Who is this virgin noble enough to be greeted by an angel and yet humble enough to be the fiancée of a workman? How gracious is this union of virginity and humility... Had Mary not been humble, then, the Holy Spirit would not have rested upon her, she would not have become pregnant.lo3

Monastic theologians like Bemard were particularly interested in emphasizing Mary's humility, as humility was an important quality of their cloistered way of life. With the growth and spread of mendicant movements like Franciscanism, the idea of the virtue of humility, as exemplified by Mary, spread beyond the confines of the monastery. As such, it came to be reflected in Marian images such as the one in Prato. nie Virgin's simple garments, downcast eyes and covered head are al1 telling signs of humility.

lmThomasof Hales, The Lyf of Oure Lady, p.49. '*'Bernard of Clairvaux, Homily 1, in Mugnifcut, pp.9- 10. A Merelexnent that can be related to humility is the field of flowers in the lower part of the background of the Prato panel. It is possible that this represents the closed garden of the Madonna's Wginity as suggested by Andrew Ladis.'" More specifically, however, the Bowers resemble those of the strawberry plant, with small five petalled white blossoms. Strawberry plants represented humility because the plants bend toward the ground due to the weight of their bemes. The white strawberry flower, that bloomed in the spring, is also symbolic of the Incarnation of Christ, and appears in scenes in which the Incarnation would be represented, such as the Madonna del Parto or the ~nnunciation. Two other images can be included with the Prato Mudonna because they also emphasize both hurnanity and humility. They are the two closely related Florentine frescoes from the mid Trecento, both now existing only in Fragrnentary condition: Taddeo Gaddi's Madonnu del Parto in San Francesca di Paoia, completed around 1355, and the similar Eresco attributed to the circle of Nardo di Cione, and now in San Lorenzo

(figs.20&21). As with the Prato example, they are both clothed very sbply and appear modestly unomamented. One final work that should be mentioned in this context is an unusd fiesco executed around 1359 in Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna (fig. 22). In this image, attributed to Simone dei Crocifissi, the Madonna in a simple dress is seated on the

'04AndrewLadis writes: "Though undistinguished and badly damaged, this panel is of special interest because the Madoma stands on a flowered field, doubtless a reference to the closed garden symbolic of her Wginity." In Andrew Ladis, Taddeo Gaddi: Critical Reappraisal and Catalogue Raisonne (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1982) p. 169. 'OsMirella Levi d'hcona, The Garden of the Renaissance, Botanical Symbolism in Italian Painting (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1977), p. 152. Flowers, a common symbol of growth and fertility, were a natural symbol of the Annunciation which was a festival of early spring. Yrjo Him, The Sacred Shrine: A Study of Poetry and Art of the Catholic Church (London: Macmillan and Co., 19 12) p.281. ground with a closed book on her lap.IMHer seated position is a clear indication of her humility and is similar to the Madonna of Humility type which was developing in the ~recento.'~Moreover, the book held by the Virgin is also an iconographie element of interest.

In fact, a book is held by Mary in al1 of the Madonna del Parto examples and is likel y derived from !innunciation imagery . During the late Middle Ages, the Incarnation was believed to have occured at the moment of the Anaunciation or sometimes even slightly before the actual arriva1 of Gabriel. Mary's response to the Annunciate Angel, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1.38), was usually considered the moment of conception." By the twelfth century, Mary was thought to have been praying, as she did every day, when approached by the angel.lWThe Meditations describes her routine, calling on the authority of St. Jerome for authenticity:

The Blessed Jerome writes this about her life: 'The Blessed Virgin established this de, that in the morning she prayed until the third hour, from the third to the ninth hour she was busy spinkg, and from the ninth

-- - '%e fiesco was identified by ElIy Cassee in 1978 and dso includes a dog at the Virgin's feet and an earthenware bowl filled with earth on a small table beside her. Cassee associates the green of the dress with humility. Elly Cassee, "La Madonna del Parto," Paragone 29 (1978) pp.94-97. '"'For the development of the Madoma of Humility see, Millard Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena aftr the Black Death (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978) pp. 132- 150. lo8Fromthe fifth century, the Feast of the Annunciation was celebrated in Constantinople on March 25 as one of the feasts dedicated to Christ and was called Conceptio Domini. It was probably not introduced to Rome until the seventh century where it became more of a Marian feast.Gertnid Schiller, The Iconography of Chrisfian Art, trans. Janet Seligman (Greenwich: New York Graphic Society, 1971) pp.33-34. 'OgEarly Annunciation images based on Eastern legends often show Mary spinning when the angel approaches her as descnbed in the second century Protoevangelium of James. See, The Other Gospels, pp. 107-1 21. she again prayed, continuing until the appearance of the angel from whose hands she received her food ...'.l'O

Although the text was intended to provide a mode1 for the nuns for whom it was written, it does reflect the fact that it had became cornmon to imagine Mary with a book and desk at the time of the Annunciation. As well as emphasinng Mary's devout routine, the book being read at the tune of the Annunciation also recalls Mary's role in the fulfiument of the prophecy of Isaiah

(7.14), which reads: "Therefore the Lord hirnself shall give you a sign; BehoId, a virgin

shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall cal1 his name Imman~el.""~In fact, it was not uncommon in Annunciation imagery to have these very words visible on the open pages of the Virgin's book. This association can also be made in tems of the Madonna del Porto images. A choirbook illumination £hmthe workshop of Nicc016 da Bologna, now in the Museo Civico in Bologna, provides one illustration (fig. 23). The image, dated around 1365, accompanies the text of the Missa in honore Beate Marie Virgînis ab

adventu usque ad nativitatem Domini, a sung prayer praising Mary at the time leading up to the birth of Christ. In the illumination, the obviously pregnant Virgin rests one hand on her abdomen and holds a closed book in the other. The book is a reference to Isaiah who stands below pointing to the scroll of his prophecy which he holds."' Such images of the Annunciation and Incarnation overlap at besdue to the aforementioned closeness of the two events, which were believed to have been practically simultaneous. The Golden Legend provides a typically succinct summation of views on this moment:

"meauthor quotes Jerome fiom the Gospel of fseudo-Matthew, or Liber de ortu beatae Marine. See, Meditatiom, p. 12. "'Y rjo Hirn believes it was Bernard of Clairvaux who first wrote Mary was actually contemplating the prophecy of Isaiah. Hirn also mentions that it was not uncommon to portray an open book with the words of the prophecy on the visible page, see The Sacred Shrine, pp.3 18-32 1. '12Elly Cassee also describes the closed book as a symbol of Mary's virginity. Cassee. "La Madonna de1 Pasto," p.95. Be it done to me according fo thy word. Bernard interprets this:"I will not have it done unto me as preached by sorne demagogue, or signified in a figure of speech, or irnagined in a dream, but as silently breathed into me, in person incarnate, bodily living in my body." And in an instant the Son of God was conceived in her womb, perfect God and perfect man, and from the very first day of his conception he had as much wisdom and as much power as he had in his thutieth year."'

The second half of the quotation reveals another commonly held idea represented by some of the Madonna del Parto images. Udike those of other children, Christ's body and sou1 were believed to be united fiom the moment of conception, resulting in his perfection from that time onwards. However, he chose to stay in the womb for the normal penod of nine months in order to expenence completely his humanity. As is carefully explained by the Meditations: "The Lord Jesus remained enclosed in the womb for nine months according to the human manner, benignly and patiently enduring and waiting for the proper Therefore, after conception and during the tkne of her pregnancy, Mary was a living shrine, literally the tabernacle that housed the Incarnate God. Indeed, many of the honours accorded to Mary derive fiom the unique fact that she was physicaily inhabited by God during the nine month of her pregnan~y."~The iconography of the Vierge Ouvrante, discussed in the previous chapter, clearly emphasizes this concept (fig. 15). When the sculptures are opened, often it is the Trinity that is revealed to the beholder, Wly formed and powerful, within the womb of the Virgin, making obvious what is implied in the more naturalistic images of pregnancy.

During Mary's period of physical unification with God she was a consecrated vessel, and as such, she deserved the privilege of homage.II6 The biblical narrative of the Visitation provides an example of this kind of homage when Elizabeth greets Mary and

-- "3~acobusde Voragine, "The Annunciation of the Lord," The Golden Legend, p.200. "4Meditatiom, p.30. 'lSStillbest described by Y rjo Him, The Sacred Shrine, pp.3 18-32 1. '16Yrjo Hirn, The Sacred Shrine, pp.3 19-320. says: "Blessed art thou mong women, and blessed is the fniit of thy womb" (Luke 1.42). Mary then replies with the Magnificat. The phrases that make up the Magnificat, dong with much of text of the Lukan infancy narrative, have parailels in the Old Testament emphasizing Mary's role as a sacred vesse1 or more accurately, the Ark of the New

Covenant. One such parailel can be found in the use of the verb overshadow. Initially, Gabriel explains to Mary thaf "the power of the Highest shall overshadow theeN(Luke 1.35). The related passages in Exodus appear when the cloud of God covers or shadows the tabernacle (Exod. 40.32£f)."' Similar parallels are also apparent and elaborated on in the apocryphd writings on Mary.li8 In pictonal images, the Virgin as Ark of the New Covenant, is conveyed through the use of a tent or baldacchho above the figure of Mary. The well known Piero della Francesca fiesco in Monterchi includes this device, which is intended to recall the tent and curtains over the tabernacle that was designed to house the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus (fig. 19).'19 Two other examples of the Madonnu del Parto that include a tent are the panel attributed to the Master of San Martino alla Palma, in Santa Maria in Campo in Florence (fig.2), and a fifteenth-century panel by Rossel10 di Jacopo Franchi now in the Palazzo Davanzati in Florence (fig. 24).lM

"'Hilda Graef, Mary, u History of Docirine and Devotion, pp.9- 10. "'For a more detailed description of the parallels to the Old Testament see Marina Wamer, Alone ofAl2 her Sex, pp.3-33. Another passage of interest is fkom Apostle Paul's Letters to the Hebrews (9: 11): "But Christ being come and hi& priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to Say, not of this building. " "mere are other interpretations of the canopy or tent iconography, arnong them as a symbol of secular glory often given to medieval royalty. See Ronald Lightbown, Piero della Francesca (New York: Abbeville Press, 1992) p.194. laBrendan Cassidy dates this panel to the early fifieenth century. Cassidy, "A Relic, Some Pictures and the Mothers of Florence in the Late Fourteenth Century,"p.93. Caroline Feudale lists it as an Ufizi panel and agrees it belongs to the Quattrocento. Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madoma del Parto," pp. 1 1-12. It is also mentioned by Richard Ofier as a fifteenth-cenhxy exarnple of a Madonna accompanied by two In the later panel, the Virgin also has a jewelled crown on her head and bears the title Re* Coeli, or Queen of Heaven.IL1In fact, several of the Madonna del Parto images represent the Virgin as the Queen of Heaven by including regal attributes such as a crown and richly decorated garments. One of the earliest is the UffiP Madonna della Ninna of about 1340, originally from the church of San Piero Scheraggio, and possibly by the Master of San Martino alla Palma (fig. 25).'" This Virgin wears a dress of a rich, pattemed fabnc and is being crowned by two a~gels.'~Due to the unmistakable gesture of her right hand, which protectively covers her abdomen, she is to be considered pregnant. Two other panels that are similarly regal in appearance display a rare combination of pregnancy and apocalyptic irnagery. The apocalyptic imagery alludes to Mary's association with the passage in Revelation, a connection that was ofien used by theologians to reinforce the doctrine of her Assumption:

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in biah, and pained to be delivered ...And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule al1 nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. (Rev. 12.1-6).

- -- donors. Ofber, A Critical and Historicaf Corpus of Florentine Painting 3, 5 (New York: Institute of Fine Arts, 1934) p.28. I2'Feudale identifies the name Regina Coeli on ihis panel which indicates the Virgin's role as Queen of Heaven. Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madoma del Parto," Marsyas: Studies in the History of Art 7 (1957) p.12. '=The attribution to the Master of San Martino alla Palma was given by Ofnier in 1933 and is generally accepted. See, L. Bell, Gli Uflzi, Catalogo Generule, ed. Luciano Berti (Florence: Centro Di, 1979), n.P956. See also, Giulia Sinibaldi e Giulia Bninetti, Curalogo della Mosîra Giottesca di Firenze del 193 7 (Florence: Sansoni, 1943) p. 5 45. '"Richa in 1755 records the panel in the second chapel on the right in the chuch of San Piero Scheraggio, a chapel patronized by the Compagnia della Nha or della Madonna Cantone. As well, the proposed date of 1340 seems a bit late now as a result of recent considerations of the anonyrnous painter. L. Bell, Gli UBzi,Catalogo Generule, n.P956. nie first panel is a small mid fourteenth-centq work in the Museo Bandini in Fiesole, attributed to a foilower of Nardo di Cione (fig. 26). This Madonna del Porto in a gold brocade dress bas the moon under her feet as well as a crown of stars on her head.12" In her halo the words REGMA CELI are inscribed.lZ The second panel, in the Pinacoteca Vaticana and dating fiom the late fourteenth century, is known as the Madonna delle Virt2, or Maria Madre delle Virtli (fig. 27)!" This pregnant Virgin wears the sun in a rnedallion on her breast and also has a crown of twelve stars. She is accompanied by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and is surrounded by eight personifications of the virtues . These images, portraying Mary as the Queen of Heaven and the Apocalyptic Woman, are connected to the belief, relatively common by the Trecento, in her corporal Assumption into heaven after death.ln Indeed, the association between the pregnancy of

'"Cassidy mentions that the Virgin's belt is identical to the one in an illuminated manuscript copy of the legend of the Sacra Cintola in the Biblioteca Roncioniana in Prato. Cassidy, "A Relic, Some Pictures and the Mothers of Florence in the Late Fourteenth Century, " p.94. '25Bothpanels are mentioned by Ofnier, who calls them Orcagnesque, and descnbes them as combining the Madoma del Parto and the Apocalyptic Mother images. Ofnier, Corpus 3,5, p.28. Caroline Feudale descnbes the Fiesole panel as having the words REGINA CELI inscribed in the halo, however, Feudale includes it as Quattrocento work. Feudale, "The Iconography of the Mado~adel Parto," p. 11. The Fiesole panel is dated 1343 in the catalogue by Maria Viani: Fiesole: Museo Bandini (Bologna: Edizioni Calderini, 1981) p.15. '?le Vatican panel is thought to be fifteenth century by Caroline Feudde. Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madonna del Parto," p. Il. Brendan Cassidy dates it to the third quarter of the fourteenth century. Cassidy, "A Relic, Some Pictures and the Mothers of Florence in the Late Fourteenth Century," p.93. lnAccording to Millard Meiss, the inclusion of Apocalyptic imagery would have occurred after the mid fourteenth century, following the Black Death. This type of imagery could also be found in Madonna of Humility representations of the same period. He mentions that it was not common until the fourteenth century to connect the Apocalyptic Woman to Mary (Bonaventure like several other writers makes the connection), and that dl Madonna panels involving Apocalyptic imagery show the Virgin standing. Painting in Florence and Siena afrer the Black Death, pp. 154- 1 55. At die same time, he isolates an exceptional group of standing Madonnas, a pose formerly rare in painting, and specifically mentions the Madonna del Parto images, pp.39-46. the Virgin and her Assumption forms the bais of Caroline Feudale's interpretation of the Madonna del Parto Mages. Feudale demonstrated that Mary's Assumption was thought to have been a renilt of her matemity.la Although it remained a subject of debate in the western church until 1950, there did exist a tradition of Assumption theology for medieval scholars to draw upon.'" Many of the early apocryphal narratives presupposed the Assumption of Mary. However, it was slightly later that theological witing on the subject emerged.IMEpiphanius, writing in the late fourth century, was one of the earliest to question her mortality. However, it was the Eastern Fathers who began to emphasize the physical or corporal Assumption of the Virgin. Saint John Damascene wrote:

There is, however, an infinite difference between the servants of God and His Mother ... if, in the naturai course of events her holy and blessed soul is separated fiom her venerable and spotless body, and if her body has been consigned to the grave, according to the prescriptions, still it will not remain in death and will not be the prey of corr~ption.'~~

The case for her corporal Assumption was dependant on her physical incorruptibility and divine motherhood, as illustrated by Saint Germanus of Constantinople:

It was impossible that this virginal body, the vesse1 wherein God had confuied Hirnself, the temple vivified by the most holy Divinity of her only Son, should rem& shut in the sepulchre of the dead.'32

IZBSeeFeudale, "The Iconography of the Madona del Parto," pp.8-24. She fmds the origin of the tradition of linking mysteries in the apocryphal narratives and in a dogrnatic tradition deriving from the patristic writings of the Eastern church- 12% was in 1950, under Pope Pius MI, that the Assumption became official dogrna of the Catholic Church. For a detailed account of the development of Assumption doctrine. Sec? Joseph Duhr, The GZorious Assumplion ofthe Mother of God, tram. John Manning Fraunces (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1950). '%arly apocryphal accounts include De Transitu K Mariae or Liber Transitus Mariae by the Pseudo-Miletus of the fourth or fifth century. Joseph Duhr, The Giorious Assumption of the Mother of God, p.43. "'John Damascene (d.749), Hornily 1, In dormitionem B. M. Virginis,quoted in, Joseph Duhr, The Glorious Assumption of the Mother of God, pp.27-28. '32St.Germanus (d.740), Sem. 1, In dormitionem B. Mariae, quoted in Joseph Duhr, The Glorious Assumption ofthe Mother of God, p.36. The Western Fathers tended to avoid the Virgin's proposed resurrection in their writings, so it was fiom the East that much of the Assumption theology and imagery of the Middle Ages came. Although Bernard of Clairvaux recognizes that Mary's position in heaven is assured through her mUaculous and uncorrupted pregnancy, it is unclear as to whether he commits completely to the idea of corporal Assumption:

God, for it was God indeed whom she bore, having it in mind to give his mother special glory in heaven, was carefid to prepare her on earth with special grace; whereby she conceived undefiled beyond al1 telling and unspoiled she gave bi~th.'~~

1 have received then fiom the Church that day to be reverenced with the highest veneration, when being taken up fiom this sinfil earth, she made entry into the heavens; a festival of most honoured joy.'"

This vagueness is also tnie of other western scholars who were cornfortable admitting that the Virgin had a special place at her Son's side in heaven, but codd not find the secure tradition to support complete corporal Assumption. In The Golden Legend and Thomas of Halesf Vila, a westem source is found in order to give the apocryphal story more credibility. They both quote fiom De Assumptione Beate Mariae Virgirzis, thought to have been by Augustine, but now recognized as by the Pseudo-Augustine:

If no recognized authonty stands in the way, 1 truiy believe that the body through which she engendered Christ is with him in heaven, because such sanctification is more worthy of heaven than of earth. The throne of God, the brida1 charnber of the Spouse, the house of the Lord, the tabernacle of Christ, is worthy to be where Christ is: heaven is more worthy than earth to guard so precious a treasure. Such integrity deserves to be succeeded only by incorruptibility, certainiy not by disintegration or decay. That

')'Bernard of Clairvaux, Homily 2, Magnijicat, p. 15. '"Bernard of Clairvaux, Letter 174, The Life and Worhof Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux 2, ed. John Mabillon, tram. Samuel J. Eales (London: Burns and Co., n.d.) p.5 13. most holy body lefi as food for worms? I would be afiaid to Say so because 1 cannot even think it.13'

It should be noted, however, that even in The Golden Legend, Jacobus de Voragine makes clear that the story is Apocryphal, indicating to his readers that it represents what should be believed rather than officiai church It follows that, in the images of the Mudonna del Parto which include apocalyptic references, the interrelationship between the mystenes of Mary's miracdous pregnancy and her Assurnption is clearly recognized. However, the interrelationship is not necessarily implied in al1 of the Madonna del Parto representations as suggested by Caroline Feudale. Apocalyptic imagery appears in two of the images, not al1 of them. Further, reference to the Ass~ptionusuaily appean in conjunction with other aspects and roles of the Virgin, such as her position as Mediatrix, intercessor on behalf of mankind. An image already discussed, the Little Madonna at Fiesole, clearly demonstrates this particular combination (fig.26). In the panel there is a figure in contemporary dress gesturing for the intercession of the Queen of Heaven. There is also an inscription around the border of the panel which begs for her mercy: AVE REGINA MISERICORDIA DI ME MADRE DI PIATA CHE SON MISER0 SERVO VIRGO VIRGNS.'37

Upon reflection, it becomes apparent that the Virgin's role as Mediaûix is implied in dl of the representations of the Madonna del Parto because of the nature and fûnction of public images at the tirne."' It is most clear, however, in those that include orant figures, such as the two discussed above that also incorporate the tabernacle or tent iconography (figs. 2&24). The Madonna del Purro in Santa Maria in Campo includes a

'35Jacobusde Voragine, "The Assurnption of the Virgin," The Golden Legend 2, p.96. '36Jacobusde Voragine, "The Assurnption of the Virgin," The Golden Legend 2, pp.82- 83. 13'Quoted in Maria Viani, Fiesole: Museo Bandini, p. 15. "'David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History und Theory of Response, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989) pp. 136- 139. kneeling Franciscan monk to the lefi of the Virgin, who holds his hands in a gesture of s~pplication.'~~He is seemingly both worshipping her as the tabernacle of the living God and appealing to her power as a rnediatrix." The later panel by Rossel10 di Jacopo Franchi includes two orant figures in contemporary gannents at the feet of the Virgin. In both of these images, Mary is being worshipped and appealed to as the mercifid mother of mankind, or mater omnium.

Due to her unique position of having been inhabited by God and being the rnother of God, Mary was considered the most effective intercessor on behalf of man. Her intimate and physical contact with God was not shared by conventional saints, as is recognized by Bernard of Clairvaux while reflecting on the implications of the Annunciation:

Could it be that the fvst grace had filled only her soul, and that the second w-as now to be showered in her womb because the fullness of divinity which already dwelt within her spiritually, as it does in many a saint, will now begin to dwell within her corporally as it had done in no other ~aint?'~'

He went on to advocate appealing to her through prayer and imitating her behaviour in life:

Follow the example of her life and you will obtain the favour of her prayer. Following her you will never go astray. Asking her help you will

- -- - - "Tor information on the parish church of Santa Maria in Campo see Walter and Elisabeth Paatz, Die Kirchen von Floren.. Ein Kunstgeschichtliches Handbuch 3 (Frankfurt: Wissenschaftliche Beitrage, Kulturwissenschaftliche Reihe, 1952) pp. 171 - 177. They descnbe the panel as a rniraculous image of a standing saint with a book and kneeling donor. They attribute it to a follower of Daddi and date it at 1350. It seems to now be in the Capella della Natività di Maria. laRichard Offner suggested that this was a donor, but also mentioned that at one time it may have been meant to be St. Francis hirnself, because of the wound of the stigmata barely visible on his left hand, but he is missing his halo. Offner, Corpus 3, 5, p.28. "'Bernard of Clairvaux, Homily 4, Magnificat, p.49. never despair. Keeping her in your thoughts you will never wander away ...Her kindness will see you through to the end.'"

Part of appealing to the Virgin successfully was through imitating her and holding her up as an example to follow. Bemard was most concerned with monastic men like himself following her example. In fact, it was common amongst Cistercians of his tirne to attribute female characteristics to themselves, imagining thernselves to be imitating a soa of idealized motherhood.'" Bernard, at the end of his second sermon in adventu domini, includes a prayer to Mary in her role as mediatrix, begging for her pceand unique powen of intercession:

Notre-Dame, notre médiatrice, notre avocate, avec ton Fils réconcile-nous, à ton Fils recommande-nous, auprès de ton Fils représente-nous! O bénie (Lc 1-42), par la grâce que tu as obtenue, par la faveur unique que tu as su acquérir, par la miséricorde que tu as enfantée, accomplis cette requête: que Celui qui a daigné, par ton intermédiaire, devenir participant de notre faiblesse et de notre misère, nous rende aussi participants, par ton intercession, de sa gloire et de son bonheur, lui, le Christ Jésus, ton Fils, notre Seigneur, qui, au-dessus de tout, est béni pour les siècles (Rm 9.5).'" The Virgin was appealed to because she was considered to have particula. influence with Christ, as she was his mother and sometimes his bride. Another prayer that addresses Mary in her role as intercessor is the Franciscan Antiphon to the Holy Virgin

- -- - '"Bemard of Clairvaux, Homily 2, Magnificat, pp.30-3 1. '"See, Caroline Walker Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984) pp. 110- 166. Clarissa Atkinson discusses Bernard's particularly bleak persona1 view of women who were more often associated with Eve than with Mary. Atkinson, The Oldest Vocation, pp. 121-124. '"Bemard of Clairvaux, "Avent, Sermon II, " Sermons pour Pannée, tram. Pierre-Yves Emery (Brepols: Les Presses de Taize, 1990) p.5 1. Mary repeated during The First ODce of the Passion, and attributed to Saint Francis

Holy Virgin Mary, among d the women of the world there is none like you; you are the daughter and handrnaid of the most high King and Father of heaven; you are the mother of our most holy Lord Jesw Christ; you are the spouse of the Holy Spirit. Pray for us, with St Michael the archangel and al1 the powen of heaven and al1 the saints, to your most holy and beloved Son, our Lord and Master.'"

And yet, the importance of the Virgin as an intercessor was not restlicted to the homilies and prayee of holy scholars such as Francis and Bernard. In fact, this is one point where liturgical and popular veneration converge. Although theologians were careful to emphasize Mary's position as separate and lower than that of God or Christ, she was relativeiy autonomous in the popular imaginations. The taies of miracles perfonned by the Virgin, recorded in greater number after the eleventh century, reflect popular

concepts of Mary." The stones had been told as early as the sixth century, but it was the twelflh and thirteenth centuries that witnessed the development of collections of stories of this nature. The collections were ofien in the vernacular, and although they remained rnostly in the realm of monasticism, they were available to literate preachers and storytellers.'" Some of the most popular of these cornmonly known miracles are described by Jacobus de Voragine in The Golden Legend under the "Birth of the Virgin". Although in reiigious texts Mary as a mediatrix is always recognized as having denved her power fiom God, she does seem to possess a certain amount of autonomy and in many tales

I4'Quoted in The Writings of Sr. Francis of Assisi, trans. Benen Fahy (London: Burns and Oates, 1963) pp. 140- 142. "Clarissa Atkinson links the growth of these collections to the more general literacy of the eleventh century. Atkinson, The OIdest Vocation, p. 132. '"Sister Vincentine Gripkey outlines several of these sources in her chapter, "Latin Collections of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries," The Blessed Virgin Mary as Mediatrùc in the Latin and Old French Legendprior to the Fourteenth Century (New York: AMS Press, 1969) pp.62-63. appears to act independently. For example, in the following miracle, where she defends one of her devotees:

The pnest of a certain parish, a man of Wtuous life, knew no other mass than the mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which he celebrated day after day in her honour. This was brought to the bishop's attention, and he called the priest in immediately. The priest told him that he did not know any other mass. The bishop scolded him harshly, called him an impostor, suspended hirn nom his parish duties, and forbade him to celebrate Mary's mass. The following night Blessed Mary appeared to the bishop, rebuked him severeley, and asked why he had treated her servant so bady. She added that he would die within thirty days unless he reinstated the priest in his parish. The bishop, shaken, summoned the priest, begged his pardon, and ordered him to celebrate no other mass than the one he knew, the mass of the Virgin Mary.'" Esmiracle is a typical example of Mary personally protecting and rewarding someone who was faimto her, even going so far as to threaten the Bishop with death. The power wielded by the Virgin in the medieval miracle stories seems to be almost autonomous fiom God, suggesting that the power of the Virgin could have challenged the theocentrism of contemporary Christianity. In fact, the possibility of Mariolatry in the Middle Ages forms the topic of Sister Mary Vincentine Gripkeyrs 1938 thesis. Although she studies the descriptions of the miracula, such as the one above, Gnpkey concludes that Mary remained an instrument through which God's will was worked in a position below the Trinity but above other creat~res.'~~In order to prove this point, she cites as examples miracle stories in which the Virgin appeals to God on behalf of mankind.lMDespite this argument, it seems in fact, that Mary could act on her own or intercede with God depending on the situation, and she received petitions accordingly. The Virgin of the miracle stories demands devotion or faithfiilness above everythng else.

148Jacobus de Voragine, "The Birth of the Virgin," The Golden Legend 2, p. 156. '49Gripkey,The Blessed Virgin as MediatrU; pp.70-130. '59'wo miracles she mentions are visions included in The Golden Legend version of the "Life of Saint Dominic." One is the vision of a Franciscan, the other of a Dominican. See, Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend 2, p.47. She is willful and capricious but above al1 merciful, fùlfiiling her role as Mater Mi~ericordiae.~~'The role is clearly iilustrated in the Venetian images of the Madonna of Mercy, discussed in Chapter One, which include the image of Christ in a mandorla on Mary's breast, while she protects supplicants under her made (figs. 1O& 11). Similar supplicants also appear in several examples of the Mudonna del Purto type already mentioned. Also to be included in this group is a panel by the school of Bemardo Daddi.lR It is the Mudonnu and Saints in the Museo deIltopera del Duomo, Florence, dated 1334 (fig. 28). The Virgin's pregnancy is assurned because her garment is slashed at the sides for cornfort. Included in the panel are two saints, two female donor figures, one of whom is in monastic clothing and one male donor. She holds an open book, the inscription on which underscores the role of mediah: Dolcissima Vergine Maria da bagnuolo, pregovi che preghiate lui per sua charita et per la sua po fezia mi faccia gr. di cio che mifammestiere.ln In other words, Sweet Virgin Mary of bagnuola, I pray to you that you may pray to him for his kindness and for his power, grant me grace of that which 1need. Further, two kneeling figures in prayer are at the feet of the Virgin in a late fourteenth-cenhiry Venetian panel, originally fiom the church of S. Caterina but now in the Gallerie delltAccadernia di Venezia (fig. 30). On the book held by the Virgin are the

'"Caroline Walker Bynum believes that the unpredictable behaviour of the Virgin as Mediatrk is related to the fact that she is femaie, and thus unreasonable. See, Bynurn, Jesus as Mother, p. 1 37. 'n~hispanel is published by Feudale who suggests it as a possible prototype for the Trecento iconography of the type. Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madonna del Parto," p. 1 1. Richard Ofber dates it 1334. Offner, Corpus 3,4, p.50. '53Thesaints are identified as Catherine of Alexandria and Zenobius. See, Giulia Sinibaldi and Giulia Brunetti, Pittura Italiana del Duecento e Trecento. Catalogo della Mostra Giottesca di Firenze del 193 7 (Florence: Sansoni, 1943) p.529, n. 169. niere is a similar panel in the Vatican Pinacoteca with an inscription which has been identified as the Magn$cat (Luke1:46-48) fkom which the panel denves its name (fig. 29). However, because only the Virgin is represented it may weli be the central section of an image much like that in Florence (fig.28). See Caroline Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madoma dei Parto," p. 11. words: MATER. AVE. XPI SANCTISSIMA. VIRGO MARIA PARTU, placing her solidly within the Madonna del Parto group. She is seated before a tent or curtain held by two angels, refering to her role as the new Ark of the Covenant and she holds a lily in her right hand emphasizhg her purity.IY Finaily, she has a jewelled crown on her head, signifjmg her role as Queen of Heaven.

Significantly, the Virgin's power as an intercessor was not restricted to images. Her ability to help the faithfiil extended to relics that were associated with her as well. One of these relics is the final element of the Madonna del Parto images to be examined here. It is the knotted belt wom by the Virgin in at least five of the representations. The girdle appears always to be fashioned out of a simple cord that is sornetimes knotted. Unlike the cord belt in images of Saint Francis, which settled quickly into a definite form of three knots to syrnbolize the Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, there does not seem to be a set number of knots in the Virgin's cincture."' This has led to speculation on the meaning of the belt. Caroline Feudale subscribes to an interpretation of the girdle as a symbol of chastity or virginity. Cords and cinctures fomed part of the habits of severd holy orders and were in alrnost al1 cases a symbol of chastity.ls6 However, the girdle of the Virgui had specific relevance, since it was a popular and

'"Sandra Moschini Marconi, Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia. Opere d'Arte dei Secoli XNe XV (Roma: Istituto Poligrafico del10 Stato, 1955) p.20. '"Louis Réau, L 'lconogmphie de l'art Chrétien 2 (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1957) p.5 19; Cathieen Hoeniger mentions that in an early dossai of St. Francis at Assisi seven knots are shown. Cathleen Hoeniger, The Renovation of Painting in Tmcany 1250-1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) p.78. For more information on the icooography of St. Francis see, George KaW, Iconography of the Saints M Tuscan Painting 1 (Florence: 1952) pp. 386-4 15. '''Cinctures were also received through miraculous circumstances by severd saints including Monica, Ambrose, Simplicianus, and were part of the costurne of virgins of the early church. Catholic Encyclopedia 4 (New York: Encyclopedia Press, 1908) pp.357- 358. efficacious reli~.'~Further, one of the supposed resting places of the relic was the town of Prato in Tuscany, giving the belt regional importance as well. Interestingly, the apocryphal legend involving the Virgin's girdle did not become part of popular accounts of her Assumption until the late medieval period. A typical rendition of the story is the one found in The Golden Legend:

Thereupon Mary's sou1 entered her body, and she came forth glorious fkom the monument and was assumed into the heavenly brida1 chamber, a great multitude of angels keeping her Company. Thomas, however, was absent, and when he came back refused to believe. Then suddenly the girdle that had encircled her body fell intact into his hands, and he realized that the Blessed Virgin had really been assumed body and ~oul.'~'

As can be seen in the excerpt frorn the account of Mary's Assumption in The Golden Legend, the apocryphal tale is not onginal, having been taken directly fiom the gospel story of Thomas' doubt following the Resurrection of Christ (John 2 1.24-29). Although Apostle Thomas was included in the narrative as early as the tenth century, the cincture itself was the final variation to be added to the literature, and was only regularly included by the thirteenth ~entury."~ However, Mary's Assumption was not universally accepted as dogma. Representations of the tale, cornmon enough by the fifieenth century, were included in Archbishop Antonho's previously mentioned list of heretical subjects:

...But they [painten] are not to be praised either when they paint apocryphal matter, like.. .the Virgin Mary in her Assumption handing down her girdle to St. Thomas on account of his doubt, and so on.lM

Is7See, Brendan Cassidy, "A Relic, Some Pictures and the Mothers of Florence in the Late Fourteenth Century," pp.91-99, in which he positions this elernent as the key to the interpretation of the iconography of the type as a whole. 158.Jacobusde Voragine, "The Assumption of the Virgin," The Golden Legend 2, p.82. 159JosephDuhr, The Glorious Asszrmption of the Mother of God, pp.44-45, 102- 105. IaQuoted in Baxandall, Painting and Erperience in Fifieenth Century Italy, p.43. Despite this type of censure, the relic and its story had a strong popular following and representations of the cincture began to appear throughout Europe in the first half of the

fourteenth cenhuy. There was particular interest in cities that claimed to have the girdle, including Prato, Paris, Chartres, Constantinople, Le Puy and ~ssisi."'However, al1 of the examples of the Madonna del Parto covered by this study that include a girdle are fkom Tuscany, so it is the Tuscan relic that will be examined mer. Typically for each relic, an involved tale explains how it came to belong in a specific location. The sacred girdle or sucra cintolu in Prato is no exception. Hence, the story relates how Michele Dagomari, a young Pratese, went to the Holy Land on the first crusade. When the fighting ended he stayed in Jenisalem as a merchant to make his fortune. He fell in love with Maria, the beautifid daughter of a Greek Priest. Her father refused to give them permission to marry, but her mother helped them to elope, giving them the relic as a dowry. The relic had been in Maria's family over a thousand years, since it was given to them by the Apostle Thomas himself before he went to India as a missionary. The young couple sailed home to Itaiy where they kept the reiic secretly. Ultimately, Michele, on his deathbed, entmsted it to the parish @est at Santo Stefano in Prato, who promised to build a cathedra1 to houe the precious belt. The entire tale was painted in the Chape1 of the Sacred Girdle by Agnolo Gaddi around 1392-5, replacing an earlier cycle in the nave of the Prato Cathedral.'" Giuseppe Bianchini, who wrote an early eighteenth-century history of the sacra cinfola, records miracles there as early as the late twelfth century.'" Nevertheless, Brendan Cassidy has shown that documentation of the relic's presence in the parish of Santo Stefano only exists fkom the 1270s.

'"Marina Warner, Alone ofAl1 Her Sex, pp.278-279. '62BruceCole, Agnolo Gaddi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977). Giuseppe Marchini, i2 Duomo di Prato (Milan: Electra Editrice, 1957) writes that there was an early Trecento cycle by Bettino Conino da Prato that no longer exists, pp.71-72. '"Giuseppe Bianchini, Nutizie istoriche intorno alla sacratiss. Cintola di Maria Vergine che si conserva nella Città di Prato in Toscana (Florence, 1722). Importantfy, Brendan Cassidy argues that the inclusion of the belt in the Tuscan Madonna del Parto images is directly related to the relic of the sucra cintola, present in Prato at the thne. Cassidy points out that, although the cintola was said to be in Prato from 1 194, the subsequent emergence of images coincides with the Florentine capture of Prato and its relic in 1350.'" He proposes that the Madonna del Parto representations of the third quarter of the fourteenth century reflect the aforementioned political events and allude specifically to the relic in question. With respect to this theory, it is interesting to note that the earliest example of the Mudonna del Parto iconography is the panel in Prato aîûibuted to Bettino Corsino da Prato. Similady, the Assurnption of the Virgin did become a much more popular topic in public art in Florence in the later half of the fourteenth century, as Brendan Cassidy has shown. What is most interesting about the relic, however, is what it reveals about the Virgin's role as intercessor and helper in relation to issues of fertility and pregnancy, as is demonstrated in a story fiom Giuseppe Bianchini's history. It is the tale of a noble Florentine matron who possessed a single thread fkom a tassle of the cintola. She wove the thread into a beautifid veil, which she looked after very carefully and with singular veneration. If it happened that a pregnant woman in labor could not give birth, and was in danger of her life, it was found that this veil placed over her resulted in her giving birth successfully and fiee of danger. Bianchini notes that this happened many times.

Cassidy believes that the Madonna del Pario images reproduced the relic's power, particdarly in connection to difficulties suf5ered in ~hildbirth.'~'While it is tme that the relic performed miracles associated with childbirth, an examination of

- luBrendan Cassidy descnbes the history of the relic and the Florentine interest in it. Cassidy, "A Relic, Some Pictures and the Mothers of Florence in The Late Fourteenth Century," pp.93-97. For a history of the relic see, Giuseppe Bianchini, Notizie istoriche intorno alla sacratiss. Cintolu di Maria Vergine. lGCassidy, "ARelic, Some Pictures and the Mothers of Florence in the Late Fourteenth Century," p.97. Bianchini's account of the history of the relic reveals its use in a much broader scope of problem solving." It also appears that the relic, or part of it, had to be seen or touched in order for it to be effective. To that end, those desving its aid would go to great trouble to physically get their hands on it. Due to this requirement, it is difficult to tell whether an image of the relic would be a sufEcient substitute for the actud item, but it remains a possibility. However, devotion to images of the Virgin at the rime of her pregnancy are not necessady linked specitically to the cintola. The presence of the cintola in some of the images could possibly enhance theù efficacy, but would not necessarily act as the focus of the image. It is probable that images of Mary, particularly those examples that represented her pregnancy in a naturalistic manner, were venerated as fertility and birthing aids in popular or cult devotion and that such activities and meanings existed simultaneously to the theoIogicaI context discussed h this chapter.

'% ianchini, Notizie istoriche intorno alla sacratiss. Ciniola di Maria Vergine, p .39ff. I t is also made quite clear that the relic had to be seen or touched in order for it to perform. There is no indication of veneration of images of the cintola in the Bianchini account. Chapter 3

Rituai Use: A Contexhial Exploration of Possible Functions of the Madonna del Parto. Representations of the mystery of the Incarnation, particularly the Madonna del Parto, were appealed to as aids in fertility, pregnancy and birth. Indeed, one of Mary's

roles in the devotional practices of ordinary women was as protectress and helper of those who had difficulty with fertility and childbirth. Significantly, this use of the images in popular devotion existed concurrently with the theological meanings identified in the previous chapter, reflecthg the diverse interests of the groups of people who appealed to these religious representations. Indeed, the apparent complexity of interpretations applicable to the Virgin Mary does not appear to have been questioned by the medieval worshipper. An exploration of the reality of childbirth in the Middle Ages will reveal a need for images and objects that were thought to aid women in al1 aspects of procreation. Birth was dangerous and fiequently fatal, and in Trecento Tuscany in particular, numerous children were necessary for historical and societal reasons. This context will be discussed and then the chapter will examine some of the objects and images that assisted women with problems of fertility and childbearing, and how these objects affected the imagination of women through contemporary beliefs in their syrnpathetic properties.I6' Images of the Virgin were considered particularly effective for pregnant or infertile women, and ultimately the Madonna del Parto type will be shown to be included in this

PUP The relation of the Virgin to issues of fertility derives fiom hvo principal interconnected sources which will be described in this chapter. The fust involves the traits and functions Mary inherited fiom the fertility goddesses who came before her in the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and Europe. The second is her Christian role as Mother of

I6'The definition of syrnpathetic or imitative rnagic that is used is that of James G. Frazer The Golden Bough of 19 13. See, Jacqueline Musacchio, Imaginative Conceptions Ni Renaissance Italy (unpublished paper, 1995) p. 2. God, sparsely treated in the gospels but richly elaborated in the apocrypha and popular tradition. Mary's fertility was perfect and untainted due to its rniraculous nature. Her ensuing pregnancy and labour occurred without discornfort, pain or complication and resulted in the birth of a unique and perfect son. Thus, the Virgin Mary was held up as a paradigm in al1 aspects of childbearing. Finally, a consideration of two Madonna del Parto images still actively worshipped today will conclude the chapter: Taddeo Gaddi's miracle-working Madonna in the church of San Francesco di Paola, Florence, and Piero deIla Francesca's famous fiesco at Monterchi.

Late rnedieval childbirth was hherently dangerous. The process was not only extremely painful, but ofken led to the death of both mother and baby." Consequentiy, social and iegal customs of the thne recognized these risks. For example, in early Renaissance Venice women wrote their wills while pregnant and were ofien insured by their families at the same the in order to cover any future loss of the dowry investment they had made.'" An English text fiom the thirteenth century, entitled Holy Maidenhood, provides evidence that childbirth was anticipated with a certain amount of feu. It should be understood, however, that the text was written in order to encourage young women to enter the convent rather than following a more conventional path of mariage and procreation.'70For this reason, it presents what can be interpreted as a worst case

------'"Julia Miller cites a conservative estirnate of the mortality rate of women due to pregnancy and related complications as one in five in fifteenthcentury Florence. See Miller, "Miraculous Childbirth and the Portinari Altarpiece," Art Bulletin 77 (June 1995) p. 258. Renate Blurnenfeld-Kosinski describes some of the common difficuties encountered in childbirth. Blurnenfeld-Kosinski, Not of Woman Born: Representations of Cesarean Birth in Medieval and Renaissance Culture (Ithaca: Corne11 University Press, 1990) pp.7-2 1. 16'Jacqueline Musacchio, Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Italy, p. 1. I7"The religious idedization of virginity and the life that came dong with it provided wornen with an alternative to their biologically predestined role. See, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Not of Woman Born, p. 1 1. scenario, exaggerating common fears and apprehensions that mut have surrounded the process, particularly for girls yet to have children:

But now suppose it al1 happens that she have her wish of offspring, as she pleases, and then let us see what amount of joy arises therenom. In begetting thereof, is her flesh first tom with foulness.... ln the gestation, is heaviness and hard pain every hour; in the actuai birth is the strongest of al1 pangs, and occasional death...

...When it cornes to that at last, there is the sore sorrowful anguish, the strong piercing pain, the comfortless ill, the pain upon pain, the wandering lamentation. While thou art in trouble therewith, in thy fear of death, shame there is in addition to that sorrow, at the old wives indelicate skill, who are skilled at that time of woe, and whose help thou must have, no matter how unbecoming ...17'

While emphasizing the pain involved in pregnancy and childbirth, the text of Holy Maidenhood also reveals the lack of experienced medical help available to women at this tirne. Birth in the Middle Ages was considered to be a non-medical procedure that remained entirely in the domain of women who were trained as midwives. It is difficult to ascertain what birthuig practices existed, as midwives only begin to appear in medical texts in the fourteenth century. However, it seenis that if the birth was normal, with no complications, the outcome was positive. On the other hand, if something went wrong, there was not much chance of survival of either mother or child.lR An image of cesarean birth from the mid-fourteenth century, demonstrates a last attempt to remove the foetus fiom the body of the mother in order to bury them separately, and thus Save the soul of the child (fig. 4). Some medical information was available to deal with complications that could occur in childbirth. Significantly, most of this information was fiom Greek and Roman

--- '"Quoted in, Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook, ed. Emilie Arnt (London: Routledge, 1993) pp.92-93. 'RInformationon Medieval and Renaissance birth in, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Nor of Wornan Born, pp.7-9 1. medical litemture and, despite its existence, was not widely available and may have been inaccurately translated. Nonetheless, the most complete separate treatise on the problems of women was still the first, written by Soranus of Ephesus. Soranus practiced medicine in Rome in the second century and wrote a systematic textbook on gynecology and obstetrics, revealing quite a strong knowledge of anatomy. The text was written with the intended audience of midwives, whom he assumed to be literate.'" However, it is clear that most of the methods employed by the women in the Middle Ages were not based on Greek and Roman gynecological knowledge, but were instead learned through experience and apprenticeship. Given the low level of female literacy at the theand the training by apprenticeship, it seems unlikely that many midwives would have had access to a treatise like that of Soranus."' The presence of medically trained male doctors could not have improved the situation, as they generally knew very Me, if anyihing, about the birthing process. In terms of actual obstetrical procedures, one of the best known medical texts of the Middle Ages is The Diseares of Women, atûibuted to the so-called Trotula of Salern~.''~Much of this treatise is inherited indirectly fkom Soranus and probably more

'"James Sands Elliott, Outlines of Greek and Roman Medicine (Boston: Longwood Press, 1978) pp.92-93. lT4RenateBlurnenfeld-Kosinski, Not of Woman Born, pp.7-9 1. '"Trotula of Salemo was thought to have practiced between the mid-eleventh and the early thirteenth century and was for a long tirne believed to be a female physician. Although women healing other women was relatively comrnon, women were not able to qualim as physicians and it would have been extremely rare to publish a work. This had led to the suspicion that she never existed and her writings were actually those of male practitiones fiom the medical school in Salemo. This could be tnie as the knowledge of what actually happens in the birthing charnber seems a bit vague. See, Women's Lives in Medieval Europe, p.98. For more information on "Trotula1'and its relationship to rnedicine practiced on women, see, "The Curse of Chastity: The Marginalization of Women in Medieval Art and Medicine," in Matrom and MarginuZ Women in Medieval Sociei-y, eds. Robert R. Edwards and Vickie Ziegler (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1995) pp.49-74. directly fiom gale^^.''^ Despite the questionable knowiedge of the proceedings within the birthing chamber, the treatise does reveal some medieval attitudes towards obstetrical practices, as well as some cornmon remedies for probiems that could arise:

Chapter XVI. On the regdations for the woman about to give birth. When the thefor giving birth is imminent, let the woman prepare herself as the custom is, and the midwife likewise. Let sneezing be done with great caution, holding tightly the nostrils and the mouth, in order that the greatest part of the strength and spirits may tend toward the womb ....

Let an aromatic fumagation be made below the nostrils; it can dso safely be applied at the mouth of the womb because then a hgrant womb follows and an il1 smelling one is avoided. For this purpose hgrant kinds of substances avail as musk, amber, wood of aIoe and the like for rich patients, and hgrant herbs as mint, pennyroyal, calamentum, wild rnarjoram and the like for the poor. It is to be noted that there are certain physical remedies whose virtues are obscure to us, but which are advanced as done by midwives. They let the patient hold a magnet in her nght hand and fïnd it helpful. Likewise they let her drink a powder of ivory or they find that coral suspended on the neck is helpful. In similar fashion that white substance which is found in the dung of an eagle, when given in drinks is advantageous. Likewise give the dung of baby birds which is found in the swallow's nest. Washings of this are serviceable for this and for many other purposes."'

The recommendations in the quote seem, to the late twentieth-century reader, fuule and ignorant at best, and dangerous, perhaps even fatal, at worst. "Trotula" does repeat some of the information found in Soranus that relates to complications, but is generally much less sensitive towards the patient and not as comprehensive."' For example, in contrat to Soranus' careful description of an embryotomy, in which he emphasizes the preservation of the mother's life, the midwife or medical practitioner in Trotula is advised that: "In the first place and above al1 things when there is difficulty in childbirth one mut have

'76Galenpracticed in Rome in the second century. He compiled and published most of the medical works existing at his One, consolidating the history of Greco-Roman knowledge. See, Elliott, Outlines of Greek and Roman Medicine, pp.96-108. 'nTrotuia, quoted in, Women's Lives in Medieval Europe, pp.98- 104. "'Renate Blurnenfeid-Kosinski, Not of Woman Born, pp. 15-21. recourse in GO^.""^ The instructions continue encouraging the reader to bathe the woman, rub her in various herbal concoctions, fumigate her, make her sneeze or vomit, and anoint her f?om the waist down with various greases and oils that are meant to soften her. However, it must be remembered that the medieval midwife was practising in an entirely different religious context from Soranus or fiom the late twentieth century reader. A medieval embryotomy, while possibly saving the mother's life, would prevent the saving of the infant's soul, because the infant needed to be removed dive fiom its mother's body for baptism. thus allowing both individuals to be buried separately in sanctified ground.

Yet, despite the real dangers involved in delivery, children were considered both desireable and necessary, and most married women were pregnant for much of their adult

lives. However, sexuai intercourse, for its own sake, was not generaliy encouraged by influential ecclesiastical authorities. Albertus Magnus explained that the yeaming and pleasure associated with sex had merely developed as necessary incentives in order to compensate for the pain and difficulty involved in giving birth.'" The Church's attitude towards sexuality does not seem surprising: intercourse was to take place between husband and wife and was intended for procreation and nothing more. Even with that type of censure, it is unlikely that sex was considered merely a chore. In Trecento secular literature such as The Decameron, sex is often described as pleasurable and worth considerable risk. In Boccaccio's tales, pregnancy was the most cornmon outcome of sexual interaction, whether the individuds involved desired it or not, and was seen as a

-- - - "'Again, Trotula is quoted in, Women !s Lives in Medieva[ Europe, pp.98- 104. Another possible reason for this lack of sensitivity, in terms of the writing of Soranus, could be that much of the information was received through the writings of Galen, whose knowledge of gynecology was superficial. Gden was ignorant of the surgery practiced by Soranus. '*~lbertthe Great, Man and the Beasts, De Animalibus 22-26, tram. James J. Scanlan (Binghamton: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1987) p.60. justifiable risk to take."' Biah control was neither effective nor predictable and illegitimate children were cornmon amongst the upper and lower classes. In fact, it was not unknown for the bride to actually be pregnant at the time of marriage in pesant relationships throughout Europe as a guarantee of her fertility .'" The role of the patrician wife was also closely bound to her ability to reproduce. Leon Battista Alberti, writing in the fifieenth cenhiry, explained that a woman was to take care of the domestic flairs of the family. Her role was particularly to bear and care for the children; after dl, as he points out, wornen have done so since the beginning of time. Fuaher, men are advised to pick a wife with these domestic criteria in mind:

In her body he must seek not only loveliness, grace, and charrn but must also choose a woman who is well made for bearing children, with the kind of constitution that promises to make them strong and big. There's an old proverb, "When you pick your wife, you choose your children."'"

A man had to choose carefiilly because children had many important functions, not the least of which was to perpetuate the successful and wealthy father's memory and position in the family and in society. Children were integral to ternis of inheritance, succession and maintenance of the lineage. They were also necessary to take care of parents, when they had become old and unable to look after themselves. Natalism in Tuscan Trecento society was Merstimulated for a variety of demographic and economic reasons. Records suggest that there was a dramatic population decline in the region between the years 1300 and 1427, the final date being

"'For example, in the eighth tale on the third day, an Abbott spent many nights in the arms of a woman with "enormous pleasure and delight". Finally, Boccaccio writes, "accidents will happen and the lady eventually became pregnant." In The Decarneron, tram. G.H. McWilliam (London: Penguin Books, 1972) pp.254-264. '"Frances and Joseph Gies, Marriage and the Famil'y in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Harper and Row, 1987) pp.242-243. lmIt is the unmanied Lionardo speaking in Leon Battista Alberti, I Libri della fomiglia, tram. Renee N. Watkins (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1969) pp. 11 1 - 116. that of the comprehensive Florentine catasto studied by David Herlihy and Christine ~la~sich-Zuber.'"Prato is remarked on as the town with some of the best records prior to the fifieenth century and is thus used as an example. The centuries prior to 1300 were marked by population growth, with numbers high and stable into the fist two decades of the fourteenth century. However, by 1427 Prato had lost about three quarters of its rural and urban inhabitants The losses were distributed unevenly throughout this time period, most coming from the bouts of plague, the biggest one in 1348, followed by several smaller outbreaks. Interestingly, there were periods of stability, recuperation and population growth after each attack. For example, the population climbed quite rapidly in the 1st decades of the fourteenth century prior to the 1399 recurrence of the plague. This pattern is andogous to what happened in other towns such as Pistoia or Volterra. It also reflects what happened in Florence, which expenenced similar phases of decline der

1348.Ia The increased birth rate following each outbreak of the epidernic is particularly interesting. In the European population, it seems that patterns of marriage and childbirth quickly adjusted to disaster in many ways. The plague had the effect of consolidating existing farm and family groupings leading to an improved econornic situation and better nutrition and health. For cornmoners, the increased birth rate was most likely connected to this improved economic situation due to population decline. Upper class individuals who remained after each outbreak married each other and, out of necessity, were not as selective as they had been before. Children, who were particularly vulnerabie to disease, had died in large numbers. Thus patrician families were left desperate for male heirs, which resulted in numerous hasty marriages to avoid the extinction of family lines. As a

'"See David Herlihy and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Les Toscans et leurs familles. Une étude du catastof[orentinde 1127 (Paris: Presses de la fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1978). luDavid Herlihy and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Les Toscans er leurs familles, pp. 165- 177. result, the age of rnarriage in dl levels of society dropped quite dramatically, particularly for men. Younger parents were more fertile and stimulated the birth rate. In addition, the use of contraception, such as it was, decreased.'" Furthemore, contemporary records and literature also record what is described as

extraordinary ferhlity and increased multiple birthç. Pnor to the plague, many Florentines were having between four and six children. Based on the account in Giovanni Morelli's Ricordi, written between 1393 and 141 1, this number jumped significantly afterwards. One example he describes is that of a woman he knew, Lorenza the wife of Niccolo Corsini. Lorenza gave birth to twenty children in the space of twenty four years (1 365- 89), eight of whom lived to addthood. One explmation that has been given is that perhaps this type of fertiliiy resulted fiom the dereffects of sterili~due to trauma.'" It seems more likely, however, that the combination of younger parents and healthier conditions had the greatest impact on the increased birth rate. Indeed, in the uncertainty of post-plague Tuscany, large families were important for both economic and political reasons and a male heir was considered not only desireable but necessary.'" Whether there was plague or not, many babies died shortly after their birth and children generally were extremely vulnerable to accidents with many not surviving to the age of maturity. High mortality rates meant that pregnancy often had

-- -- 186Francesand Joseph Gies, Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages, pp.223-234. Also David Herlihy and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Les Toscans et leurs familles, pp. 187- l96,2O l-206,328-34 1. '"David Herlihy and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Les Toscans et leursfamilles, pp. 196- 198. '88.JacquelineMusacchio, Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Italy, pp. 1,24-25. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Not of Woman Born, pp. 12- 13. Kosinski also discusses the ambiguity over how medieval and renaissance parents felt about their children about whether they loved them or whether they were expendable. There is almost no information on this subject except hagiographical stones and Iineage information, both of which are exceptional cases, although perhaps they reveal some normal practice. to be undergone many times in order to have only a few children. la' Lionardo, one of the characters in Alberti's early fifieenth-century text on the famiIy, counseis against wonying too much over their ihesses. So many offspring die in the fïrst years, he reminds his fiiend Adovando, and if they do die it is best to remember the joy they brought you and move on.lgO

Given that most women were frequently pregnant, and the existing medical knowledge was inadequate to deal with complications, it is not surprishg that women tumed to non-medical alternatives for help. Jacqueline Musacchio's contextual study of the ritual and practice surrounding childbirth in Renaissance Italy has demonstrated how the lack of scientific and medical knowledge created the need for a variety of talismanic, mystical and religious aids to increase the chances of a successfÙi birth, preferably of the

more desireable and less expensive male heir."' It will be show that the Madonna del Purto can be included in the group of images that assisted women with problems of fertility and childbearing. Such objects and images functioned through the belief in the positive effect of their sympathetic powers on the materna1 imagination.'" Musacchio's use of the term "sympathetic rnagic" applied to items helpful to childbirth is based on the concept descnbed by James Frazer in The Golden Bough of 19 13. Sympathetic magic is divided into two main categories, homeopathic rnagic and contagious rnagic. In ternis of

'gqChnstianenapisch-Zuber describes infants as making up a large proportion of the population by the beginning of the fifieenth cenhuy, "Demographic Decline and Household Structure: the Example of Prato, Late Fourteenth to Late Fifieenth Centuries," in Klapisch-Zuber, Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, ed. Lydia Cochrane (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985) pp.3 10-329. 'It is significant that Lionardo, who has no children, says this to Adovando, the womed father who explains that children oniy bnng grief. See, Leon Battista Alberti, I Libri della famigliu, pp.54-55. '9'Jacqueline Musacchio, Imaginative Conceprions in Renuissunce Ilaly, p. 1. '=~acquelineMusacchio, Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Ituly, p.2. childbirdi, it is the horneopathic or imitative type of sympathetic magic that cornes into play, based on the principle that like produces like. Although homeopathic magic is often associated with negative intent, it cmalso be used to facilitate childbirth and to heal and prevent sickness. For example, in some cultures a barren woman would hold and study the image of a child in order to conceive.'" The belief in the power of parental imagination over the process of childbirth has a long history. Saint Augustine in Agaimt Julian cited Soranus' ancient tale about King Dionysius who:

because he was deformed, did not wish to have children like himself. In sleeping with his wife he used to place a beautifd picture before her, so that by desiring its beauty and in some manner tahg it in, she might effectively transmit it to the offspring she conceived. '"

The belief that the imagination of the parents, particularly of the mother, could influence the child in utero or even the child yet to be conceived is evident during the Middle Ages and Renais~ance.'~~In his learned discussion of human reproduction, Albertus Magnus cited the authonty of both Galen and Avice~awhen he claimed that the child could be influenced by the parents' state of mind. He issued a stem waming to his readers saying: "a certain king, while having sexuai relations with his queen, told her he envisioned a monstrous black creature; later the queen gave birth to a deformed dark ~hild."~%In Della Fanzigka, Alberti also reflects these beliefs in a discussion about sexual intercourse between husband and wife. State of mind was considered very important for husbands aiming to conceive. Indeed, doctors advised that "intercourse be

- - '"James Frazer uses the exarnple of the Batak people of Sumatra who have dolls that aid with fertility. James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, ed. Robert Fraser, abridgement fiom the second and third editions (London: Oxford University Press, 1994) pp.28-33. '"Augustine, Agaimt Julian 5, ch.9, cited in David Freedberg, The Power of Imges: Studies in the History and Theory of Response (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989) p.2. Igs Jacqueline Musacc hio, Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Italy, pp-7- 1 1 . '%~lbertthe Great, Man and the Beasts. De Animalibus, p.63. undertaken only when one is sober, strong and as happy as possible." He adds that it is also advisable to "make oneself intensely desired by the woman," as both parents' attitudes of mind are important for a healthy child.'" In the examples descnbed above it is clear that either parent could be influenced by their imagination at the time of conception. Nevertheless, during pregnancy the imagination of the mother would naturally be perceived as critical. Thus images that were believed to be powerfui were looked upon and studied at key moments in order to influence the development of offspring. The iduence of powerful images also continued after a child was bom, as is shown in Giovanni Dorriinici's 1403 tex& Rules for the Management of Family. He explains that in order to bring children up as proper Chnstians one should have "paintings in the house, of holy boys, or young virgins, in which your children when dlin swaddling clothes may delight as being like himself. ..The Virgin Mary is good to have."198 Jacqueline Musacchio discusses the application of this forrn of sympathetic magic with particuiar attention to the dornestic context, explainhg the need to control "the imaginative parameters of potential parents by presenting desireable images, in important locations, at key moments."'" Fertility, confinement and birth have always belonged within the female sphere, and birth was aided by objects that developed out of this comrnunity, such as recipes, talismans and amulets. Items used included fi-agments of inscribed texts kept in small pouches as charms, special cloths and perhaps little dokm Letters still exid that were written between women giving each other advice and recipes

'"Leon Battista Alberti, I Libri della famiglia, pp. 120- 1 2 1. '98GiovanniDominici, quoted in David Freedberg, ï?ze Power of Images, p.4. Also, Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissunce Italy, pp.320-32 1. 199JacquelineMwacchio, Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance ItaZy, p.8. qerewere specific dolls that were likely used as fertility aids, given to women before and after their marriage. See, Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, "Holy Dolls: Play and Piety in Quattrocento Florence," in, Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, pp.3 1 0-329. for particdar herbai remedies, fertility dmgs and various methods of birth contr01.~'As weil, wooden birth trays, present in most anluent Tuscan households nom the Iate fourteenth century onwards, were often painted with confinement scenes and sometimes included images of healthy boys on their reverse side which could be gazed upon by the mother .m On a Iarger scale, painted confinement scenes illusûating the birth of the Virgin or John the Baptist were on display in some homes. These two mkculous and successful biblicai births were usually set in contemporary domestic interiors which would have been familiar to the patrons. Some images which were considered to be particularly powerfid could only be seen at specific times, and were concealed when not in use. niese were the representations that were kept concealed behind a curtain, under a cloth cover, under the lid of a chest or perhaps on the reverse of a bowl or plate. The church used similar foms of concealment for miracle working images, revealing them only on special days and festivals or in response to particular req~ests.~~ Although Musacchio focws on the rituals of the female cornmunity, much of what she surmises can also be applied to images that were sanctioned by the dominant male authorities. The church offered options that competed with traditional female talismanic remedies. Objects in this category included prayers, bits of manuscripts, relics

m'For example, a letter written in 1461 fiom Penelope Orsini to Ginevra de'Medici, describes a prescription to get pregnant. Quoted in Jacqueline Musacchio, Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Italy, pp. 16- 17. ?Jacqueline Musacchio descnbes one çuch tray that has an inscription on its rkn reading: "May God grant heaith to every woman who gives birth and to their father... may [the rn c hild] be born without fatigue or peril. " Musacchio, Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Italy, p. 13. 203JacquelineMusacchio, Imaginative Conceptions in Renaissance Ital'y, pp.2- 12. See also the stories of the sacra cintola in Prato recorded in Giuseppe Bianchini, Notizie istoriche intorno alla sacrafiss. Cintola di Maria Vergine che si consema nelZa Città di Prato in Toscana (Florence, 1722). and remedies given to women by pnests to guarantee a successfÙl birhm Church sanctioned Marian images, including the Madonna del Parto, likely also fùnctioned in this manner. In fact, although the Virgin could act as an intercessor for al1 manner of prayers, she did have specific capabilities in the areas of fertility and childbirth.

Along with Saint Margaret, the Virgin was the figure most ofien appealed to in childbirth? At shrines to the Madonna or in front of her images, ex votos were left in gratitude after a successful birth. The ancient practice of making ex votos is based on the central desire to give thanks, and they are usudly given in gratitude for salvation fiom disease or disaster by what is perceived as divine intervention. Prayers were made in advance to a mediator such as the Virgin, and an ex voto would be left after the request was granted? The absolute faith in Mary's ability as an intercessor is evoked in the "Prayers for Women Pregnant and in Labour" fkom the Lifurg~for Mofhers, found in the Sarum Missal:

Kind virgin of virgins, holy mother of God, present on behalf of thy devoted handmaidens their earnest prayers to the Son, thou that art the benign assister of women in travail ....

Hearken, O most merciful father, to the entreaty of thy servant on behalf of thy poor handmaidens who are now, or who shall be hereafter, in labour; most humbly entreating thy majesty, that as by thy providence thou hast ordered that they do conceive, so by thy blessing thou wouldst go before them, and bring matters to a speedy and successful issue, to the honour of thy holy narne, through the intercession of the glorious virgin ....

. ------mJacqueline Musacchio uses a 1578 exarnple of an ex voto given by Duke Francesco 1 de Medici at the S. S.Annunziata in Florence. An inventory of the Annunziata from 1496 records many such offerings for aid in fertility and childbiah. Musacchio, Imginutive Conceptions in Renaissance Ilnly, pp .22-23. prior to her martyrdom Margaret prayed, "that any woman who invoked her aid when faced with a difficult labor would give birth to a healthy child." See the story of Saint Margaret in The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints 1, trans-William Granger Ryan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993) pp.368-370. '06DavidFreedberg, The Power of Images, pp. 1 36- 148. Poor women, labouring with child, flee to thy succour, O Mary; whom I entreat thee that thou despise not in the hou of their necessity, but deliver them fiom al1 dangers, Wgin ever blessed ....

Hail, Mary, consoler of women in labour, full of grace, helper of infants; because the Lord is with thee, be their protector; that thou mayest be blessed above women, and that the fhit of thy womb may be extolled by al1 Christians as blessed above dl...?"

In the Liturgy, the mercy of the Virgin is invoked on behalfof all women who are in labour or who will be in labour in the fiiture. Mary, who is named "assister of women in travail and consoler of women in labor," is begged to intercede in order to bring the birthing process to a speedy and successful conclusion. Afier childbirth was completed there was another blessing which was given outside the church before the woman, tainted by her delivery, was able to re-enter. It begins by thanking the Lord for survival: "O God, who hast delivered this woman thy servant fiom the peril of childbifi...?"'

The Virgin's power to influence childbirth and fertility denved frst from the traits she inherited from the great female goddesses that existed before her in Europe, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. As the most important fernale figure in Christianity, it was only naturd that the Virgin Mary should inhent the most important traits of the goddesses she had displa~ed.~In the early development of the Church, theologians attempting to define Mary's role, often found themselves in the position of having to respond to popular devotion rather than being able to direct it. As a result, many of the attributes and powers given to the Virgin in the Middle Ages had in fact onginally been

------mThe Sarum Missal is dated sometime between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries. Quoted in, Wo'omen's Lives in Medieval Europe. p.97. x8Quoted in, Wornen's Lives in Medieval Europe, p.97. La'Amongstthe most recogniseable are Cybele, Aphrodite, Demeter, Astarte, Isis, Hathor, Inanna and Ishtar, many of whom were both virgins and mothers giving birth to children who were both human and divine. Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of un Image, (London: Viking, 199 1) p.548. assigned to the Church by early theologians, who had maintained that the Church itself was Virgin and Mother, Bride of Christ, the Apocalyptic Woman, the new Eve and true mother of the living.210Saint Augustine expressed this idea in his fourth-century Confessions when he wrote: "Yoq my Gad, were my guardian even then, and you saw the fervour and strength of rny faith, as I appealed to the piety of my own mother and to the mother of us dl, your Ch~rch."~" Graduaily, however, the Muter Ecclesia became associated with existing imagery of the cult of the Magnae Matres, the earlier earth goddesses of Greece and Asia Min~r."~ However, by the twelfth century it was the Virgin Mary that Bernard of Clairvaux described as, "Virgin, through whom the whole human race came forth into life."'13 The process of transferrhg atûibutes of the Church to the Virgin Mary, such as the

Assumption, was responsible for much of the identification of one with the other. For

popular devotion, the Church was too detached and abstract to be accepted completely as the incarnation of the pagan Magnae Matres, and it was the more human figure of the Mother of Christ who was generally appealed to?* In the early church, particdarly in the East, popular veneration of the Virgin was widespread and many theological changes were responses to existing practices. For example, the title Theotokos, given to Mary at the Council of Ephesus in 43 1, resulted fiom growing popuiar devotion to the Virgin as Mother of God. One result of the

'%.O. James, The CuZt of the Mother-Goddess. Art Archaeological and Documentary Study (London: Thames and Hudson, 1959) pp. 192-1 93. 21 1 Saint Augustine (d.430), Confessions, trans. R.S. Pine-Coffin (Hannondsworth: Penguin Books, 196 1) pp.3 1-32. 'I2Here Magnae Matres refers to several of the Great Mother, or earth goddess figures, who existed before the Virgin Mary. Most important are Gaea, Rhea and Cybele. For a general explanation of the ongin of these figures see, New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, tram. Richard Aldington and Delano Ames (London: Hamlyn, 1968) p. 150. 213Bemardof Clairvaux, Letter 174, The Life and Works of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Cl~irvuwc2, ed. John Mabillon, trans. Samuel J. Eales (London: Burns and Co., n.d.) p.5 15. "4E.0. James, irhe CuZt of the Mother Goddess, pp.202-204. theological debate, centred around the nature of the Incarnation and the combined humanity and divinity of Christ, was that Mary assumed a more prominent role in the doctrine of the Incarnation. Mary assumed her unique position of God bearer as well as accessible, human intermediary. Indeed, the role of mediatrk was familiar and even traditional by the time the term was actually applied to her by John Damascene in the eighth cent~ry.~'' Furthermore, in areas of Asia Minor where the cult of the Magnae Matres was very strong, there was a feminine aspect of the tri nit^.^'^ In early Gnostic sects, which appeared in the first century B.C., the Holy Spirit was considered female. Moreover, in

Greek and Hebrew the word for Holy Spirit was feminine and was connected to the idea of wisdom or Sophia, also fernale?' The Spirit was regarded by the Nazarenes and some early Gnostic sects as the Mother of Christ. Therefore the Son was bom to the Father and to Divine Sophia, who also assumed the role of Queen of Hea~en.~" Such strong popular devotion to the Virgin was reinforced by her association with more familiar female deities. The direct association of Mary with her various

predecessors was recorded as early as the fourth century. Epiphanius, in the Panarion, describes women worshipping Mary at shrines originally dedicated to Astarte or Ashtaroth, the Queen of Heaven, an activity he strongly disapproved of. The women offered liquor and cakes to the Virgin as they would have done to the goddess worshipped before herS2IgThe practice of giving these traditional cakes to the Virgin and

Z15E.0.James, The Cuit of the Mother Goddess, pp.204-209. "me specific goddess was the Phrygian earth goddess, Cybele. "'Robert Graves, The White Goddess. A Aistorical grBmrnar of poetic myth (Boston: Faber and Faber, 196 1) p. 157. '18Robert Briffault, The Mothers. A Study of the Origins of Sentiments and Institutions (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1927) pp. 1 80- 184. '19Panarion,ch.79, quoted in both, Marina Warner, Alone of Ali her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary (London: Picador, 1990) p.275, and, Clarissa Atkinson, The Oldest Vocation: Christian Motherhood in the Midde Ages (Ithaca: Comell University Press, 199 1) p. 107. to regular saints was quite widespread. Saint Augustine describes his mother bringing this custom with her fiom Africa to Milan, where Ambrose specificaily asked her to stop because it bore such close resemblance to "superstitious rites which the pagans held?" The most important role of the early goddesses for this discussion, however, is their association with fecundity. Even though the early Church was somewhat reluctant to incorporate the fertility aspect of the goddess cult hto Marian worship, it was absorbed by the people and is apparent in the images and shrines of the Middle Ages. In the Mediterranean and elsewhere in Europe, many of the fertility characteristics Mary acquired were inherited fiom grain goddesses. The Greek goddess Demeter and her Roman counterpart Ceres were direct antecedents of this aspect of the Virgin. Both had already been identified with the earlier Egyptian goddess Isis, who was likely originally a goddess of corn. One of the most recognizeable images is that of Isis suckling her son Horus on her lap, reminiscent of the Christian iconography evident in the Romanesque Throne of ~isdom."~Moreover, the Throne of Wisdom sculptures inherited visual characteristics and meaning fiom Gallo-Roman mother goddesses or Magnae Matres. Pagan mother goddesses were worshipped across Gaul and Rhineland, and many statues existed at Ieast five or six centuries before the fmt medieval Christian ones appeared. The Christian sculptures had in places replaced existing mother goddess figures and likely the use of similar irnagery made conversion easier for the beleaguered missionaries in the regionam mSaint Ambrose (d.397) was Bishop of Milan at this tirne. Quoted in Augustine, Confesions, pp. 1 12- 113. Also described in, Robert Bnffault, The Mothers, pp. 1 80- 1 84. aiJames Frazer, The Golden Bough, pp.387-389. See also, Ilene Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972) p.29. ?lene Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, pp.62-65. In Great Britain, the Virgin assumed functions of the Teutonic goddesses of fertility, and replaced hem in various festivals. Mary also replaced these figures in largely secular plays, allowing them to then fa11 under the category of miracle plays. E. K.Chambers, The Medieval Stage (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1930) pp.98-120. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there were many images illustrating the non-apocryphal Grain Miracle of the Virgin that had becorne part of the Nativity narrative. The attribution to the Virgin of this existing pagan miracle, in which a goddess causes crops to grow miraculously, demonstrates Mary's adopted role as protectress of grain. The variant of the ancient tale that features the Virgin and Christ takes place during the Flight into Egypt. As the Holy Family passes a fmer, who is either plowing his field or sowing his seed, the Virgin asks the fmerto tell the pursuhg soldiers that he saw the family while he was sowing. By the theMary has gone past, the field is Mly grown and ready to harvest. When the soldiers arrive shortly afterwards, they believe the family rnust have passed that place months before and abandon their search. The Grain Miracle was represented in art throughout the Middle Ages and beyond." A popular fifteenth-century Virgin at the Duomo in Milan wears a robe sewn with ears of corn or wheat, symbolizing fecundity and prospentya4 Interestingly, Louis Réau describes this Corn Maiden image as a variation on the Madonna del Parto because of the cornmon theme of fertility? A fifteenth-cenhiiy Bavarian woodcut of the Madonna of the Sheaves demonstrates the popularity of this imagery (fig.3 1). In a similar vein, in Sicily near lake Pergusa, historically a great centre of woship for Ceres or Demeter, there were statues of the goddess with her infant daughter Proserpine on her lap that were very svnilar in appearance to the Madonna and Child. In fact, the cathedra1 at

"Pamela Berger, The Goddess Obscured ('London: Robert Hale, 1988) pp.89- 104. P4~nneBarhg and Jules Cashford explain that the Virgin as a corn goddess appeared to a fifieenth century Mdanese merchant in a vision guaranteeing him friture prosperity. He was so impressed that he commissioned the painting. Baring and Cashford, The Myrh of the Goddess, p.578. %The type, thought to originate at Milan Cathedral, fell out of use by the beginning of the sixteenth century. Louis Réau, L'Iconographie de l'arr Chrétien 2 (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1957) pp.9 1-92. Enna displayed a Greek statue of Demeter and her daughter on the ah,in the place of the Christian Madoma and Child as late as 1927? Natural growth and fertility syrnbolism is applied to the Virgin in other ways as well. In a previously described fresco, there is an interesthg visual element that reinforces this idea A simple earthenware bowl filled with earth is represented beside the fourteenth century Bolognese seated Madoma (fig.22). In this fiesco, the earth was likely ïncluded to act as a syrnbol of the Virgin, who, due to the fact that she \vas impregnated miraculously was often compared to fertile or already fertilized earth. The natural growth image is echoed in a contemporary Song quoted by Elly Cassee in which the idea of Jesus as the hitof Mary's womb is made explicit: "Templo sacro, omato vaselIo/ annuntiata da San Gabrielle/ Dio incarnate ne1 tuo ventre belIo/ hcto novello con gran dilectanca."" In fact, the womb of the Virgin was itself the subject of popular devotion as an irnmediate symbol of salvation, a cult promoted by the Franciscans who perpetuated the use of the irnageryas A salutation to the Virgin's womb, wrongly attnbuted to St. Bonaventure, was translated into Italian in the fourteenth century for use by the public:

Show us thy Son, Jesus Christ, Madonna, blessed fhit of thy womb, &er our earthly pilgrimage. O wondrous womb, that couldst carry the Creator. O wondrous womb, that couldst receive the Redeemer. O womb of desire, fiom which came fort.the desire of holy hearts, the river of graces, and the guardian of glory. O womb that art not womb, but art heaven. In this

=In 1927, when The Mothers was written by Robert Briffaulf the statue was still present in the cathedral of Enna which was then called Castrogiovanni. Biiffault, The Mothers, pp. 180- 1 84. Marina Warner also discusses this case. Warner, Alone of Al1 her Sex, p. 276. mThe words are frorn the Laudario Mugliabechiano 2, 1 :122, Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence, quoted in Elly Cassee who also cites several biblical examples of natural growth imagery, for example, Isaiah 458, Psalms 72:6, Hosea 6:3 and 145. Elly Cassee, "La Madonna del Parto," Paragone 29 (1978) p.96. mRonald Lightbown, Piero della Francesca (New York: Abbeville Press, 1992) pp. 187- 194. womb was the redemption of those who were damned. In this womb was the glory of the blessed, that is the Lord of the angels.'19

A similar sentiment is found in the Ave Maria or Hail Mav, one of the most simple and well known of Catholic devotions originating in the mid-twelfth century. The prayer combines Luke 1 :28 and Luke 1 :42: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fitof thy womb."" And yet, for medieval society, one of the most important items in terms of fertility and birth remained the relic of the girdle of the Virgin, which appears in several of the Trecento Madanna del Porto images. As with many of Mary's attributes, the sacred girdle can be related to pre-Christian traditions. Belts with miraculous powers belonged to Isis, Ishtar and ~phrodite?' Furthemore, there were other Marian relics with similar powen, for example, at Chartres the favourite relic for fertility was the shift wom by Mary at the ~nnunciation.~'Medievai shrines that fulfilled a similar purpose continue to be used today. At Montserrat near Barcelona, a small and famous black Madonna is thought to have power over issues related to fertility, marriage, sex, pregnancy and childbirth. She iç visited by young recently married couples in order to increase their chances of ~onceiving?~

Secondly, Mary's power to positively influence childbirth and fertility denved fiom her own unique experience of pregnancy and childbirth, which provided an example for ordinary women to aspire to. The tale of the Virgin Mary's extraordinary expenence of childbearing is one of the most well known New Testament stories. As with much of

-- -- *me exerpt £kom the "Sposizione della Salve Regina" is quoted and translated by Ronald Lightbown, Piero della Francesca, p. 194. =%ilda Graef, Mary, a History of Doctrine and Devotion (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1963) p.230. See also, (fig. 29) in which the Magnificat (Luke 1.4648) is included on the book held by the Virgin. ='Robert BriEault, The Mothers, p.288. 32Marina Warner, Alone of Al1 her Sex, p.280. ?-')MarinaWarner, Alone of Al1 her Sex, pp.273-275. the legend surrounding Mary, the skeletal Lukan account of the Nativity was fleshed out and elaborated on by medieval authors with characteristic intimacy and detail. The version of the birth of Christ included in the Meditatiom, based ahost entirely on apocrypha, descnbes the event as taking place in a cave in Bethlehem:

At midnight on Sunday, when the hour of birth came, the Virgin rose and stood erect against a column that was there ...Then the Son of the etemal God came out of the womb of the mother without a munnur or lesion, in a moment; as He had been in the womb so He was now outside on the hay at his mother's feet?

The Golden Legend also makes clear the unusual nature of this birth: "The mode of the birth also was rniracuious. It was above nature ...above the human condition, in that the birth was pain les^."^' The Virgin's fertility was miraculous and her labour was completely successful and without pain. Interestingly, although the Virgin's pregnancy and labour were supematural resulting in an experience completely different fiom hurnan women, these women continued to appeal to her for assistance. This likely sternmed fiom a desire to avoid the danger and pain as she had, coupled with faith in ber ability as an intercessor. By the the that Bonaventure was writing in the thirteenth century, the belief in Mary's etemal virginity and purity was well established. The words of the Breviloquium, cited already in the previous chapter, made clear that: "Through His power, 'virginal was her conceiving of the Son of God, virginal her birth-giving, and vkghal her state after deliverance.' The Virgin's miraculous fertility, entirely without the stain of the original sin, was what allowed her to be exempt fiom the punishment to which al1 mortal

U"Meditationson the Lije of Christ: an illustrated manuscript of the fourteenth century, eds. Isa Ragusa and Rosalie B. Green, trans. Isa Ragusa (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 196 1) pp.32-33. asJacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend 1, p.39. U6Bonaventure,The Breviloquium 4, ch.3, The Works of Bonaventure. Cardinal, Seraphic Doctor and Saint 2, trans. José de Vinck (Paterson, N.J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1963) p. 150. women were condemned by Eve. In Genesis it is written: "1 will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shah bring forth children" (Gen. 3.16). Another relevant biblical story is the Visitation, which was often used by theologians to demonstrate that Mary was obviously not burdened by her pregnancy or in pain in any way." The key phrase was, "And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hiIl country with haste, into a city of Judah" (Luke 1.39). Her ability to rnove with haste reveaied that she had no "sorrow" or discodort in her conception. As usual, the Meditutions provides a more detailed account perhaps in an attempt to clariQ the Lukan information:

The roughness and length of the road did not delay her; instead she walked rapidly because she did not want to be long in the public view. Thus the conception of the Son had not burdened her, as usually happens to other women, for our Lord Jesus Christ was not heavy for His m~ther.~*

The author of the Meditations continues on at this point to explain how Mary rernained with her cousin to act as a rnidwife. This common medieval addition to the tale is also included in The Golden Legend "Mary attended Elizabeth for three months until John was born, and lifted him from the earth with her own ha.nd~."*~Interestingly this directly contradicts the gospel account of the story which rnakes clear the fact that Mary had left by the tirne John the Baptist was bom: "And Mary abode with ber about three months, and retumed to her own house. Now Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered" (Luke 2.56-57). However, the Virgin's role as midwife, as recounted in The Golden Legend, enhanced her role as intercessor on behalf of pregnant women. In fact, in many miracle stories she appeared at the 1stminute, in response to prayers, and helped with a difficult birth.

*'Y rjo Him, The Sacred Shrine: A Study of Poetry and Art of the Catholic Church (London: Macmillan and Co., 19 12) pp.322-323. "'Meditations, p.22. 239Jacobus da Voragine, "The Annunciation of the Lord," The Golden Legend 1, p.200. Because the Virgin Mary acted as the ultimate paradigm for women in dl aspects of childbearing, images of the Virgin could be considered particularly effective for pregnant or infertile women. Geraldine Johnson has shown that domestic Marian images may have hctioned in this way in Nteenth-century Florence?' In the second quarter of the Quattrocento, a new genre of private Madonna and Child relief sculptures appeared that were intended to visually promote family values. Images such as these, thought to have been purchased for the home at the tirne of a marrïage, were displayed in non-public rooms such as bedrooms and studies. It was the societally proscribed role of a patrician wife to produce healthy male heirs in order to Merthe dynastic ambitions of the family. Thus, if the idea of sympathetic magic and its purported influence on matemal imagination is applied, these images were likely intended to present an ideal mode1 to the woman of the house. Sirnilarly, Julia Miller's andysis of the late fifieenth-century Portinari Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes reveals a similar fun~tion.~~'Significantly, this is a public image, more reminiscent of the Madonna del Parto. The Portinari Altarpiece was commissioned by the Portinari family for the small church which functioned as the chape1 for Santa Maria Nuova, Florence's largest hospital. The Nativity in the centre panel is interpreted as a metaphor for salvation and thus healing, an idea reinforced by the inclusion of apothecary jars in the painting. However, it also represents a miraculous birth, demonstrating the Virgin's role as patron of childbirth. It has been shown that Mary's freedom fiom difficulty in childbirth positioned her as a figure that could be appealed to for help in birth. Jdia Miller suggests that images such as this one might have been

240GeraldineJohnson discussed private Marian images in the home within this context in a conference at the National Gallery in London, "Family Values: Sculpture and the Family in Fifteenth-Century Florence," Art, Memory and Family in EarZy Renaissance FlorenceoJune 1 996. '%dia Miller, "Miraculous Childbirth and the Portinari Altarpiece," pp.249-26 1. venerated by expectant mothers "praying for a safe and easy birth."'42 The altarpiece also referred specifically to the women of the patron's family. Behind the portrait of the wife of the patron, Maria Maddalena BaronceIli Portinari, Saint Margaret of Antioch is represented. The presence of Margaret, patron saint of childbirth, reinforces the theme of the work.

As with the Portinari Altarpiece, the combination of fear of childbirth and absolute faith in the mediation of the Virgin Mother underlie the function of the Madonna del Parto images. The Virgin's own expenence of childbirth and pregnancy which was entirely different fiorn the experience of ordinary women presented an impossible yet desireable example, a paradigm which was thought to have sympathetic power over the imagination of other mothen, leading to a positive outcome for childbirth. Nonetheless it is difficult to be certain exactly how these images may have functioned, particularly in terms of the devotion of women, as this information is often absent fiom the histonographical tradition."' As well, many of the surviving Mndonna del Parto images have been removed fiom their onginal public or pnvate liturgical settings and placed in museums. However, the locations of a few of them can be speculated on, for example, the two rnid-Trecento Florentine panels attributed to the Master of San Martino alla Palma. The first is the Madonna della Ninna, which is recorded as having been in the Capella della Nhaor della Madonna del Cantone in the

'42Julia Miller, "Miraculous Childbirth and the Portinari Altarpiece," p. 259. 243Specifically,women from Florence and its surroundhg area have been excluded from multi-dimensional recorded history. See, Diane Owen Hughes, "Invisible Madomas? The Italian Historiographical Tradition and the Women of Medieval Italy," in Women in Medieval History and Historiography, ed. Susan Mosher Stuard (Philadel p hia: University of Pemsylvania Press, 1987) pp.25-57. church of San Piero Scheraggio (fig.25)." The second panel is in Santa Maria in Campo and is thought to be the image mentioned in Richa as being in the Capella della Natività di Maria (fig.2)? Consequently, it can be determined that these were not the types of images that were placed on the high aitars of great cathedrals. In fact, most were probably in less centrai locations such as side chapels, and even on the walls outside chapels. Accessible locations such as these indicate that the images were intended for the lay worship of a wide variety of social gro~ps.~~ Further insight into function can also be found in two of the Madonna del Parto images that are still in use in a devotional setting. Although there has surely been some transformation over tirne in both devotion and object, it is likely that elements of the original purpose can be inferred?' In fact, there are many images of the Virgh that continue to be appealed to for their childbearing and fertility functions. For example, the shrine at Montserrat in Spain or that of Montevergine, south of Naples, where the shrine to the Virgin incorporates what used to be a sanctuary dedicated to Cybele. There is also a sh~eat Syracuse in Sicily where the Madonnina della Lacrime receives ex votos in thanks for a successful birth." These living cult practices can idom a discussion of the

.. . - 'MGiulia Sinibaidi and Giulia Brunetti, Pittura Italiana del Duecento e Trecento. Catalogo della Mmra Giottesca di Firenze del 19.3 7 (Florence: Sansoni, 1943) p.545. Also L. Bell, Gli Uflzi, Catalogo Generale, ed. Luciano Berti (Florence: Centro Di, 1979) n.P956. a5Giuseppe Richa, Notizie Istoriche delle chiese fiorenfine divise ne 'suoi Quartieri 7 (Florence, 1754) p. 178.Walter Paatz and Elisabeth Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florem. Ein Kunstgeschichtliches Hmdbuch 3 (Frankfurt: Wissenschaftliche Beitrage, Kultunvissenschaftliche Reihe, 1952) pp. 171 - 177. '&Bram Kempers, Painting, Power and Patronage. The Rise of the Profesional Artist in the Italian Renaissance, tram Beverley Jackson (London: Penguin Books, 1994) pp.74- 77. 247Sirnilarly,J.E. Ziegler demonstrates that modem worship of a cult image can be reveding in tems of the original use of such an object. She uses the example of the Pietà of Saint Michael in Bree which has a history representative of a pattern that was repeated many times. See, Ziegler, "The Medieval Virgin as Object: Art or Anthropology?" Historical Reflectioeexions Historiques 1 6 (Surnmer&FaIl 1989) pp.25 1-264. 'aMarina Warner, Alone of All her Sex, p.28 1. contemporary fünctions and meaning of the Trecento images through concrete, experiential information. The first of the Madonna del Parto images that cm be counted amongst those still actively worshipped today is Taddeo Gaddi's miracle-working Madonna in the church of San Francesco di Paola in Florence. When this hgment was uncovered in

1964 it was detached and inserted in a modern niche inscribed with the words "Maria SS. del Parto." As Brendan Cassidy has observed, it is surrounded by heart shaped ex votos thanking the Virgin for successful births. Significantiy, upon its rediscovery in the twentieth centwy, this pattern of devotion was established, or more probably re- established, when the image type was recognized. The second image is Piero deila Francesca's famous fiesco at Monterchi which has been appealed to by women for protection in childbirth continuously throughout its history and possibly was intended onginally for this purpose. The small church of S.

Maria della Momentana, in which the image was originally the high altar, had no established congregation. For this reason Ronald Lightbown contends that the Madonna del Pmo was cornmissioned in the mid-fifieenth century in order to attract a specific audience who would corne to appeal to it for help in ~hildbirth.'~~The site was taken by the tom of Monterchi as a cemetery in 178 5 and much of the existing Romanesque church was demolished. What remained was converted into a cemetery chape1 that continued to house the fiesco?" This funereal context has raised much speculation as to the meaning of the image. The pregnancy of the Madonna in combination with the location associated with death contributed to Caroline Feudale's ïnterpretation that it represented a confiation of the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Assumption of the Virgin?'

-- - '*Qonald Lightbown, Piero della Francesca, pp. 187-194. zORonald Lightbown, Piero della Francesca, p.188. s'Caroline Feudale, "The Iconography of the Madonna del Parto", pp.20-24. Mariano Apa also sees the connection with death, believing the image to prefigure the Another interpretation links the image with the ancient history of the site, which was considered sacred in terms of fertility £tom before the Christian period. The Virgin Mary as protectress of the most difficult phases of pregnancy and birth took over fiorn a succession of pagan cult figures. Mary became the repository of the cult of the preceding divine mothers. It follows that Piero della Francesca, according to this hypothesis, did not respond to a personal situation but rather to an institutionalized context existing for centuries.*

The above interpretations of the Piero della Francesca fiesco address the two sources of Mary's role as patron of childbirth outlined above. As the most significant female figure in medieval Christianity, the Virgin inhented power over fertility and birth fiom her pagan predecessors. At the sarne tirne, religious texts told the tale of her own rniraculous expenence, without pain or danger, positioning her as a paradigm to be aspired to by ordinary women. Given the difficulty of childbirth and the lack of available medical expertise, in a culture where having children was a given, it is understandable that women tumed to various alternatives for help. Images were commonly appeaied to as they were thought to have power over the parental, and more specifically the matemal, imagination, which in tum could influence the outcome of a pregnancy. It has been shown that representations of the Virgin functioned within this conte% and the Madonna del Parto type, which presented Mary as visibly pregnant, can be considered particularly applicable to the issues surroundhg procreation.

Resurrection and thus the salvation of mankind. See Mariano Apa, "La resurrezione, il parto e il sepolcro nell'opera di Piero della Francesca tra San Sepolcro e Monterchi," Comegno Internarionale sulla "Madonnadel Parto" di Piero della Fmcesca (Monterchi: Commune di Monterchi, 1980) pp. 149- 163. Vittorio Dini, "La Madonna del Parto di Piero della Francesca corne portatrice di un messaggio sacrale precristiano," Convegno InternazionaIe sulla "Madonna del Parto " di Piero della Francesca, pp. 1 8 1- 185. Conclusions

In this thesis, the Tuscan Trecento Madonna del Parto images are presented as powerful and complex devotional objects in both rneaning and fùnction. By approaching the painted representations in severai diverse ways, and with the help of a variety of methodologies, an increasingly comprehensive picture of the symbolic meaning and ritual use of the Madonna del Parto emerges.

The fxst chapter of the thesis demonstrates that the Trecento Madonna del Parto belongs to an existing tradition of Incarnation representations, specifically Byzantine images that displayed the Christ Child on the exterior of the Virgin's body, and Romanesque Throne of Wisdom and Vierge Ouvrante sculpture types. Although the visual language of the Italian depictions had gradually become more naturalized, partly through the influence of Franciscanism, the central and densely symbolic theological meaning of the images remained the same. The second chapter addresses this complex theological meaning ushg an iconological approach. Several aspects of rhe medievai Virgin's role are examined using theological writing and popular religious literature of the period to reveal contemporary interpretations of Marian images. In the Madonna del Parto type, the Virgin successively appears as the Ark of the New Covenant, Queen of Heaven, and Mediatrix or intercessor on behalf of humanity. Most significant are the consistent naturalistic representations of her pregnancy which allow ordinary women to identi@ more closely with her experience, making the pregnant Madonna or Virgin of Birth a particularly effective intercessor for issues of fertility and birth. It is here that the third chapter, on the ritual use of the Madonna del Parto, fits in. An exploration of the harsh reality of childbirth in the Middle Ages suggests the contextual reasons for the production of significant numbers of images with power to aid women during childbirth. Childbirth was a dangerous, often fatai process, and the existing medical knowledge was not adequate to deal with complications. Thus women tumed to images and objects that were thought to have supernaturd power. The Virgin, an intercessor in whom people had absolute faith, could answer many prayers. Her specific abilities in tems of fertility and childbirth arose fkom two main sources. First, there were the traits she inherited fiom the eaxth mother goddesses that came before her: as the main female figure in Christianity, Mary was the repository of fertility cults to female deities. Second, there was the Virgin's own expenence of pregnancy and childbirth, an expenence entirely different fiom that of ordinary women. The Virgin Birth, thus, presented an impossible yet desireable example, which when represented, was thought to have sympathetic power over the imagination of other rnothers, leading to a positive outcome for childbirth.

When studying devotional images such as the Madonna del Parto, the inherent complexity of their functions has to be taken into account. The theological and liturgical functions could well have existed simultaneously with those associated with fertility and childbirth, because the images were worshipped by distinct groups of people in contemporary Trecento society. Although it is difficult to be certain of the patterns of popular devotion, the fact that two of the images discussed in this study continue to function as cult images, informs more general speculations with experiential evidence fiom contemporary worship. Thus, cult images, like the Madonna del Parto deserve Merconsideration and exploration. Up until quite recently, such representations were not studied in depth by art historiaus because their style and authonhip were not considered significant. They do have value, however, in terms of their role in popular devotions, particularly the devotions of women. The art histonan, therefore, is challenged by the study of cult images, including the Madonna del Parto type, to draw on methodological strategies familiar to the anthropologist, involving the scrutiny of material O bjects within a cultural context, as Ruth Phillips has pointed out. To Merilluminate the cultural context in which these images operated detailed examination of surviving archival documentation will be necessary, with a focus on the aspects of site, patronage, and rihial fünction. On the other hand, expansion of this study in the direction of breadth rather than of archival research could yield significant discussions of the uses of dif5erent kinds of Madonna imagery as part of a study of how the Cult of the Virgin was manifest at the level of devotional practices. Bibliography

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Ziegler, J.E. "The Medieval Virgin as Object: Art or Anthropology?" Hktoricol Reflection/Reflexions Historiques 16 (1 989) pp.25 1-264. Illustrations fig. 1: Bettino Corsino da Prato, Madonna del Parto, early fourteenth century, Prato, Museo dellrOperadel Duomo fig. 2: Master of San Martino alla Palma, Madonna del Parto, mid fourteenth century, Florence, S. Maria in Campo. fig .3 : Madonna Platytera, twel fth-thirteenth century, Moscow, Tretiakov Gallery fig. 4: The Birth of JuZius Caesar fiom Les Faits des Romains, mid fourteenth century. London, British Library (Royal MS G16 W, fol. 219r). fig. 5: Madonna and Child, seventh century, Mount Sinai, Monastery of St. Catharine. fig. 6: Madonna and Child, seventh century, formerly Bawit, Egypt, Monastery of St. Apollo. fig. 7: Three Mothers, eighth century, Rome, S. Maria Antiqua. fig. 8: Madonna and Child, Ca. 1050, Ohrid, Macedonia, St. Sophia. fig. 9: Madonna Oram, ca.1200, Venice, S. Maria Mater Domini fig. 10: Workshop of Paolo Veneziano, Madonna della Misericordia, fourteenth cei ntury, Venice, private collection. fig. 1 1 : Workshop of Paolo Veneziano, Madonna della Misericordia, fourteenth century, Venice, Accademia. fig. 12: Jacobello del Fiore, Tripiych of the Madonna della Misericordia, 1430s, Venice, Accademia. fig. 13 : Madonna della Clernenza, seventh cenhuy, Rome, S. Maria in Trastevere. fig. 14: Margarita d'Arezzo, Virgin and Child Enlhroned, Ca. 1262, London, National Gallery. fig. 15 : Morgan Madonna, later twelfth century, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. fig. 16: Madonna and Child, Ca. 1262, Montaicino, Abbazia di SadAntirno. fig. 17: Vierge Ouvrante, ca. 1300, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art fig. 18: Vierge Ouvrante, intenor. fig. 19: Piero della Francesca, Madonna del Porto, Ca. 1450-60, Monterchi, Capella del Cimitero. fig. 20: Taddeo Gaddi, Madonna del Parto, ca. 1355, Florence, San Francesco di Paola fig. 2 1: Nardo di Cione, Madonna del Parto, mid-fourteenth century, Florence, San Lorenzo. fig. 22: Simone dei Crocifissi, Madonna del Parto, Ca. 1359, Bologna S. Maria dei Servi. fig. 23: Workshop of Niccolo da Bologna, Madonna del Parto, ca. 1365, Bologna, Museo Civico (MS. 537, fol. 32). fig. 24: Rossel10 di Jacopo Franchi, Madonna del Parto, early fifieenth century, Florence, Palazzo Davanzati. fig. 25: Master of San Martino alla Palma, Madonna della Ninna, ca. 1340, Florence, Uffizi. fig. 26: Follower of Nardo di Cione, Madonna del Parto, rnid fourteenth century, Fiesole, Museo Bandini. fig. 27: Madonna delle Virtù, late fourteenth century, Rome, Phacoteca Vaticana fig. 28: School of Bernardo Daddi, Madonna and Saints, 1 334, Florence, Museo dell'opera del Duomo. fig. 29: School of Bemardo Daddi, Mugnifcat, mid fourteenth century, Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana- fig. 30: Madonna del Parto, late fourteenth centwy, Venice, Gallerie DellfAccaderniadi Venezia. fig. 3 1: Madonna of the Shes,ca. 1450. fig.32: Taddo Gaddi, Madonna del Parto.