Current:Home > Invest'Visualizing the Virgin' shows Mary in the Middle Ages-LoTradeCoin
'Visualizing the Virgin' shows Mary in the Middle Ages
View Date:2025-01-13 21:07:05
For religious Christians, Christmas is all about Jesus Christ. But his mother Mary was busy, too, giving birth. Over the centuries, Mary became one of the most popular figures of Christendom. Yet she appears in only a handful of pages in the Gospels. Visualizing the Virgin Mary — an exhibition of illuminated manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles — shows how she was portrayed by artists in the Middle Ages, before Renaissance artists decided she had golden curls, perfect skin and blue eyes.
Mary doesn't look that cozy and welcoming in the early manuscripts. The exhibit, curated by Maeve O'Donnell-Morales, shows her as thin and dour, a devoted mother.
Yet much of Mary's popularity rests on her approachable personality, says Elizabeth Morrison, senior curator of manuscripts at the Getty Center.
"In the early Middle Ages, Jesus was a little bit of a scary figure," she says, explaining that talk about damnation and hellfire was a little distressing for ordinary worshippers. "So they latched onto the Virgin Mary as someone they thought could really empathize with them. They had someone who was kind of on their side."
Mary was warm, inclusive, understanding. Devout Catholics told her their problems, and she told them to her holy Son.
For centuries there's been debate about Mary. Was she born without original sin? Was Christ her only child? Was she really a virgin? What about after Jesus was born?
In the Gospel of James, a midwife doubted the Virgin was still a virgin. That gynecological observation didn't go well for the midwife. Her hands shriveled up. The midwife went to see Mary, and said: I don't doubt you anymore. You're totally a virgin. The Virgin asked an angel to bring back the doubting midwife's hands. And so it came to pass.
Thousands of years later, the stories continue. Some contemporary artists are changing assumptions about what the Virgin represents.
"All to the good," says Morrison. "They're making us double-think it. They're saying 'OK, she's not the figure you thought you saw.'"
Today's artists see the Virgin as a feminist, a West African deity, an inspiration for tattoos.
Art — like Mary — is eternal.
veryGood! (97442)
Related
- Agents search home of ex-lieutenant facing scrutiny as police probe leak of school shooting evidence
- 1 monkey captured, 42 monkeys still on the loose after escaping research facility in SC
- Research reveals China has built prototype nuclear reactor to power aircraft carrier
- Will Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul end in KO? Boxers handle question differently
- Kentucky officer reprimanded for firing non-lethal rounds in 2020 protests under investigation again
- Man killed in Tuskegee University shooting in Alabama is identified. 16 others were hurt
- Man charged with murder in fatal shooting of 2 workers at Chicago’s Navy Pier
- A Pipeline Runs Through It
- Eva Longoria calls US 'dystopian' under Trump, has moved with husband and son
- 32 things we learned in NFL Week 10: Who will challenge for NFC throne?
Ranking
- Democrat Janelle Bynum flips Oregon’s 5th District, will be state’s first Black member of Congress
- Michael Jordan and driver Tyler Reddick come up short in bid for NASCAR championship
- Mississippi Valley State football player Ryan Quinney dies in car accident
- Timothée Chalamet Details How He Transformed Into Bob Dylan for Movie
- Mike Tomlin's widely questioned QB switch to Russell Wilson has quieted Steelers' critics
- NASCAR Cup Series Championship race 2024: Start time, TV, live stream, odds, lineup
- Mississippi Valley State football player Ryan Quinney dies in car accident
- How Saturday Night Live Reacted to Donald Trump’s Win Over Kamala Harris
Recommendation
-
Monument erected in Tulsa for victims of 1921 Race Massacre
-
US Open finalist Taylor Fritz talks League of Legends, why he hated tennis and how he copied Sampras
-
‘Heretic’ and Hugh Grant debut with $11 million, but ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ tops box office again
-
Maine dams face an uncertain future
-
15 new movies you'll want to stream this holiday season, from 'Emilia Perez' to 'Maria'
-
Kalen DeBoer, Jalen Milroe save Alabama football season, as LSU's Brian Kelly goes splat
-
Todd Golden to continue as Florida basketball coach despite sexual harassment probe
-
Beyoncé's Grammy nominations in country categories aren't the first to blur genre lines