Marian Studies Volume 49 The Virgin Mary in Art Article 7 1998 Some Protestant and Catholic Images of Mary in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Art Michael Morris Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.udayton.edu/marian_studies Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Morris, Michael (1998) "Some Protestant and Catholic Images of Mary in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Art," Marian Studies: Vol. 49, Article 7. Available at: https://ecommons.udayton.edu/marian_studies/vol49/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Marian Library Publications at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Marian Studies by an authorized editor of eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Morris: Protestant and Catholic Marian Images SOME PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC IMAGES OF MARY IN NINETEENTH- AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY ART Michael Morris, O.E* In 1810, a group of young painters in Vienna, who had found their art training at the Academy there meaningless, traveled to Rome with the intention of renewing religious art on their own. Occupying an abandoned monastery, they de­ liberately chose to imitate the works of Di.irer, Perugino, and the young Raphael. Fra Angelico, the painter monk, was also one of their artistic heroes, and their own "monkish" lifestyle within the walls of the abandoned monastery, along with their peculiar appearance, caused them to be mockingly nicknamed "The Nazarenes" by the Romans. The name stuck, and an artis­ tic movement was born. Several of the artists converted to Catholicism, and one of the founders of the movement, Johann Friedrich Overbeck, spent nearly a decade working on a can­ vas that came to be emblematic of their attitude toward art and religion. The painting, The Triumph of Religion in the Arts (Fig. 1), was perhaps inspired by a poem composed by Wil­ helm Schlegel. I In the upper register, it reveals an image of the Blessed Vir­ gin Mary, herself a symbol of the Church, holding the infant Je­ sus on her lap while surrounded by figures of the Old and New Testaments. In the lower register, Overbeck painted an assem­ bly of artists and leaders from both the religious and secular worlds, drawn from various periods of history, who utilized •Father Morris is Professor of Religion and the Arts at the Dominican School of Phi­ losophy and Theology, Berkeley, California. IThis is the opinion of Keith Andrews in his The Nazarenes: A Brotherhood ofGer­ man Painters in Rome (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964). See page 126, note 67b. XIJX (1998) MARIAN STUDIES 41-67 Published by eCommons, 1998 1 Marian Studies, Vol. 49 [1998], Art. 7 42 Protestant and Catholic Marian Images their talents for the glory of God. Van Eyck, Mantegna, Mem­ ling, Gozzoli, Dante, Charlemagne, and Pope Gregory the Great are among the many figures depicted standing around a fountain, symbolic of baptism and the wellspring of everlast­ ing life. The work, which was completed in 1840, carries with it a not-so-subtle condemnation of classical antiquity and Protestantism, while expounding the glories of Catholicism in the history of Christian art. While the Nazarenes were highly controversial in their day, they nevertheless exercised an enor­ mous influence on other artists, both Catholic and Protestant, throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While art historians do not readily look to Protestantism and its historical iconoclasm as being the seedbed for Christian iconographic depictions of Mary, there are a significant num­ ber of works by Protestant artists which contribute to the artistic understanding of how Christ's mother has been con­ ceptualized in the modern era. This has been particularly true in England and in America. ~ The English artists most certainly affected by the Nazarenes were a group of mainly Protestant painters who came to be known as the Pre-Raphaelites. Like the Nazarenes before them, they flirted with a quasi-monastic lifestyle2 and sought to re­ vive painting by paying careful attention to nature while imi­ tating the spiritual qualities found in art prior to Raphael. The poet and painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. John Ruskin, the art theorist, came to be their champion. Ruskin came from an evangelical background and Rossetti's family, while originally from Italy, embraced Protestantism in various degrees. The women in Dante Gabriel Rossetti's family were devout Angli­ cans. The men were not. Nevertheless, he found in scripture and religious themes the most perfect kind of poetry imagin­ able, and he contributed to the fostering of such art in many of his own canvases. 2A copy of their horarium and their division of labor can be found in the Ash· molean Museum, Oxford. See Plan for a Proposed Monastery Qohn E. Millais, Octo­ ber 3, 1850), contained in a scrapbook bought at the Combe sale of 1894 Oot 201), and arranged and bound in 1941: MSS. no. 145, 4M (Prints and Drawings Department, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). https://ecommons.udayton.edu/marian_studies/vol49/iss1/7 2 Morris: Protestant and Catholic Marian Images Protestant and Cafholic Marian Images 43 Rosetti's The Girlhood ofMary Virgin (Fig. 2) was the flrst work to be exhibited as a Pre-Raphaelite painting. Shown at the Free Exhibition in London in 1849, it bore the mysterious let­ ters "PRB" and was accompanied by two explanatory sonnets. It shows the Virgin Mary in the interior of her family's home, busy embroidering under the exemplary guidance of her mother, Saint Anne. Mary alone seems to be aware of the pres­ ence of an angel in the middle of the room. Otherwise, the scene is one of ordinary domesticity, suggesting the humble origins of Mary's family. As in Medieval and early Renaissance art, the painting is fllled with detailed symbolism. The angel stands guard over a pile of books representing the virtues, while up above the dove represents the Holy Spirit. The red robe and the cruciform trellis are symbols of her son's passion and death. The grape arbor is a symbol of the Eucharist. And the white lily is emblematic of Mary's purity. The painting shows Mary's family at work, and yet the Virgin's gaze seems frxed on a vision of her life's destiny. Rossetti incorporated his own family as modeis for his figures. Here, his mother posed for the head of St. Anne, while his sister, the poet Christina Ros­ setti, was one of the models used for the image of the Virgin. In another painting exhibited the following year, Rossetti re­ turned to a Marian theme. Ecce Ancilla Domini! (Fig. 3) rep­ resents the Annunciation of the Virgin. Again, Christina Rossetti posed for Mary, while a brother, William, modeled for the head of the archangel Gabriel. The painting was planned as an exercise in the color white, the symbol of purity. It is long and narrow because Rossetti had planned to make it part of a diptych, with its companion piece (never realized) represent­ ing the death of the Virgin. The title of this work is taken from the Latin translation of Mary's response to the archangel's an­ nouncement that she would be the mother of Christ. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord" is a phrase of humble resignation touched by contemplative wonder. Both qualities are seen in Rossetti's careful rendering of Mary's face. The stillness of that face contrasts with the wispy energy of Mary's hair which dances in the imagined wind stirred up by the entrance of the Holy Spirit flying through the open window. Traditional sym­ bolism again appears in this canvas. The haloes, the dove, and Published by eCommons, 1998 3 Marian Studies, Vol. 49 [1998], Art. 7 44 Protestant and Catholic Marian Images the lily are common to Christian art. Less common is the rep­ resentation of a wingless archangel. And the red stole which Mary had been embroidering in Rossetti's previous picture is now complete; the color signifies the Passion of Christ while the liturgical form signifies his priesthood. In time, Rossetti told a friend what the mysterious letters "PRB" meant. That friend told others and it was eventually re­ vealed in the newspapers. Critics immediately thought that the Brotherhood was some kind of Roman Catholic cabal, dedi­ cated to the subversion of English art by its revival of medieval symbolism and devotional themes. The full force of critical fury then fell upon the work of another PRB member, John Everett Millais, when his Christ in the Carpenter's Shop (Fig. 4) was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1850. The painting shows the interior ofJoseph's carpenter shop. Christ has acci­ dentally injured his hand. Mary consoles him while John the Baptist brings a bowl of water to cleanse the wound. As ex­ pected, the PRB attention to symbolism abounds. The wood and the nails found in the workshop prefigure Christ's death on the cross. The wound in the palm of his hand drips blood onto his foot and these are prefigurements of the stigmata. The wa­ ter bowl carried by his cousin John signifies the lad wearing an animal skin loin cloth as the Baptizer who would pour water over Christ's head in the Jordan river. The dove, perched over the head of]esus, imitates the position of the Holy Spirit's pres­ ence in the scriptural rendition of Christ's baptism,3 while the sheep in the background represent the Christian flock. Millais, who was much attracted to the sermons and tracts of the Ox­ ford Movement, based this painting on a homily that had much impressed him.