This painting, by Franceso Mancini, is shown on my calendar for the month of February. Today, people were aggravating the living daylights out of me, so I closed my door and just got lost in this for awhile. I love the expression on the faces of Mary and Joseph. They give no indication that they are fleeing for the very life of the Child who sits on Mary's lap. I can't tell if those are cherries or raspberries or strawberries that the Baby Jesus is offering to St. Joseph, but there is something so endearing about the scene. I'm the last person in the world to interpret or analyze art, so I offer my thoughts with the caveat that I am an ignoramus on this subject. With that said, how many of us who are parents can remember the wonder of watching our children discover such joy in so little an act, such as taking something out of a dish and handing it to someone else. I'm sure there is a greater message here. The Child Jesus, who would save humanity from eternal death by His own on the Cross, is handing out little treasures from a dish His mother is holding. Would these be graces offered through her mediation? I don't know, but I just love looking at this.
I love religious paintings that include the angels. Here, one angel holds a garland above the Virgin Mary's head. The other two are reading from a book. One of the angels has a look of surprise on his face. Why? How much do the angels know? Have they just discovered the fate that awaits the Child on Mary's lap when, as an adult, He enters Jerusalem?
Maybe some of you who are art aficionados can offer some reflection.
I think the angel is in awe of him.
ReplyDeleteI find religious paintings to be a
help during the Rosary; not even
looking at them, but sort of
memorizing them so they are in the
mind.
Especially for the,"Presentation".
Yeah, me too Pete. St. Teresa of Avila even encouraged the use of religious art if it helps us with staying focused.
ReplyDeleteUpon closer examination, I see that one of the angels appears to be playing a wind instrument. Maybe the other one is singing praises from the book they have open.
Joyce, I wonder if those cherries refer to a medieval song, "Cherry Tree Carol". Here is a beautiful version:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNeQNQdo8TM
You know I have a little one at home now and every day I marvel that I am in Joesph's shoes. I know what Joseph felt because I'm feeling it every day.
Egyptians built obelisks on Sacred Grounds. They had hundreds of them, but today only 9 still stand. This Mancini depiction of "Rest" is a portrait of peace...on Sacred Ground!
ReplyDeleteThe garland you mention I recognise from a trip to the Holy Land last year. I was in Nazareth a year ago next week, and olive trees are abundant. Those are olive leaf branches, just as I saw in Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives, indeed everywhere.
The olive brance is on the American eagle claw too. It stands for peace. (look on a $1 bill).
It is appropriate they are aloft the "Prince of Peace".
The fruit made me curious. Here is a tip:
When you want to enlarge or reduce any page on your laptop/PC, hold down your Control Key in the lower left, and simultaneously, hit the + button in the upper right area by "Backspace", and as often as you repeat a +, the page will enlarge. You return by keeping the Control key down, and hit the - or minus sign to the left of the +.
I do this to read the small font on The Little Way, and just count the number of + you make, to return to the original number.
Your lower right screen tells you the magnification level.
That said, I magnified the fruit 1000%.
At that close up, I definitely rule out cherries, strawberries, and even gave pause for thought that it be an olive, from the tree above them. Olives blush reddish in some areas of the mideast. But it is not to be.
The child is most likely holding grapes, fruit of the vine, and a precursor to His future.
There is a jug of water to quench thirst, and perhaps embed an early memory of rest and peace as Mary would ponder these things in her heart.
That would come handy one day in Cana, as water jugs were filled at her request of her son, and transformed to the best of wines.
I bought bottles of wine at Cana for future weddings of my girls. They do not yet know.
I cannot recall seeing auburn hair on the Madonna elsewhere, though I am hardly an authority. It seems artist depiction and desire. It also seems appropriate.
Now when folks have a baby, visitors proclaim "Oh, he has mom's eyes" or "My, he looks just like his dad", or "He has gramma's chin".
The beauty of this child portrait is that he resembles NEITHER parent. We know Joseph is a step dad, not the father. And precious little looks like Mary. I think Mancini wants to suggest God as Father by masking similar attributes of the child to Mary. "This is the son of God!", proclaims Mancini in oils.
While angel reading may be true in the background, it appears to me the one angel provides the music in the flute, while the other angel softly sings praises from the book, perhaps a Psalm. That would add more contentment to the scene, and was customary to the times.
The near nakedness of the baby is a function of desert heat in that time of day. The child is modestly cooled off, resting with mom.
And something of Joseph tells me he is pondering all this, with emphasis on his mind that he chose Mary as a future spouse BEFORE God chose her as a future mom for His son.
It must delight him to know he has the same taste in women as God Almighty! :D
That is my humble take on this Vatican masterpiece. I wish I had more space to tell you of finding God in Art.
Perhaps another time.
What a wonderful painting! I think maybe being an "ignoramus" about art may be an advantage when contemplating religious art.
ReplyDeleteI forgot this blurb from the Vatican, as it was all in Italian. But I ran it through a tool called "Google Translate", which changes any language to what you desire.
ReplyDeleteIn English, the blurb on this says:
"Considered in past work Maratta of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt was then correctly attributed to Francesco Mancini, an artist by birth but Marche Emilia for training, active in papal territory in the first half of the eighteenth century. Among his contemporaries Mancini had a unique position by developing a highly personal language which is a synthesis of Baroque and Rococo, a style of painting characterized by the ease and smoothness of execution and a matter fluid and vital color. The rest was purchased in 1772 by Clement XIV (pope from 1769 to 1774) with two other paintings of mythological subjects by the same author."
To give context to Mancini, he was born about 6 decades after the Jamestown colony of Virginia was estabished, and he died 18 years before the Declaration of Independence was jotted for Earthly freedoms.
Thank you Keystone, for your beautiful commentary and dissection of this painting. I think you should try your hand at blogging. You could call it "What Does The Painting Really Say?"
ReplyDeleteSORRY, I know how you feel about that subject, but could not resist this feeble attempt at humor. Seriously, I really marvel at the way you see things and you are generous to share that with us. I know everyone else appreciated your contemplation of this painting as well.
THANK YOU, FRIEND
Galations 5:22 speaks of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, genuine gifts to the soul.
ReplyDeleteThe Spirit has been generous to me with many of the nine; Love, Joy, Peace, Patience (a most difficult gift to obtain, NEVER request it, to your own peril!), Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness---I did not receive this, but am able to give it, and last
"Self-Control".
How curious that Self-Control is the last gift or Fruit of the Holy Spirit, eh?
We have discussed blogging; they are legion.
But comments are abysmal in most quarters, and reflect a loss of civility.
What Does The Pompous Really Say?
SORRY, too. My Bad! :(
We have a local priest who has transformed a church of old dead people, with empty pews, and made it a breath of God in our town.
He singlehandedly raised funds to restore all stained glass for every window...paid in advance.
The pews are full each time he speaks, and his flock must follow or leave (think tithing). He tells them point blank.
But he galavants the globe giving speeches, and is a heart throb to women. I get a dreaded sense of future calamity.
I do not find Christ in the prayer blog you alude too, and that is ok; others do. But I get that same sense of future dread, that whatever is going on in darkness, will come to light and crash the church body backwards anew. Had I any sense of Christ reflected there, all of this would be dismissed.
I am content to leave that spot, and RSS spots as this, or your friends on the sidebar, one at a time.
Unlike many Catholic bloggers, there is a welcoming here, and an excluding in many Catholic bloggers as the "in" crowd is established as firmly as the pew they seek in their church at a Mass, "OR ELSE".
I am deaf and sit up front, second row, sometimes first if a huge football-like player blocks the view. I must read lips. Sign language is not in vogue at the Mass. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been told to leave a pew as "that is my spot".
This comment is just a little run, around a cul-de-sac of information, that makes it easy for me to not have to repeat the same thing everywhere.
I thought of Shannon and Emily all day, and await news. Your visitors and self really made a difference with this situation.
I have had a peaceful Friday evening, looking at magnification of a magnificent art work.
Adding your kind words at the end to me, was a nice touch. Thank you for that.
In ancient days, letter endings often saluted farewell with "God be with ye!". Over time, this has been contracted to simply, "Goodbye".
I find in many situations, the original is a better than the modern vernacular.
"God be with ye!"
Et cum spiritu tuo!
ReplyDelete