Seeing the first few, I just smiled. A beautiful, well-dressed-fair-skinned young woman, often painted reading a book in a beautiful courtyard is depicted calmly glancing up from her book, to see a huge, winged, very fancy angel confronting her with the news. Often, simultaneously, she is being impregnated in her head by a bolt of light from the heavens, usually emanating from a dove. She doesn’t even flinch. You would think, even though she was purportedly only about fifteen, she might have thought about it for a second and said thanks but no thanks.
What we have her saying is, “My soul doth magnify the lord, and my spirit rejoices.” Clearly, these paintings and these words were by men. I remember being very happy when I discovered I had fallen pregnant, but I was a married woman in my late twenties. Still, I had lost of qualms.
Over the centuries, the church came up with lots of names for Mary, some of them relatively recently. “Queen of Heaven” comes to mind.”T he Immaculate Conception” is an idea the church put forth in the late 1800’s to make sure everyone understands that Mary was born without original sin. From her conception, she was immaculate. There is also a lot of art depicting her bloody heart in an open breast. Sometimes, Jesus is painted and sculpted this way too. People worship and adore the depictions of the “sacred heart.”
I find particularly troublesome, Mary’s being referred to as “Mother of God.” From that I infer that she existed before God. From what I remember from Sunday School, nothing existed before God.
I love Renaissance art and I envy people who are child-like, unquestioning people of faith. But I think the traditional faith of my childhood was lost somewhere in Florence. Too many annunciations
The Annuciation
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March 25 is the Feast of the Annuciation. This date is nine months before the date set by the ancient church to celebrate Christmas, which was called feast of the nativity.
Somehow, the annunciation became a highly-favored subject for Renaissance painters. For some very-disrespectful reason, these pictures always make me chuckle.
When I was in Florence for a month with a bunch of students, the depictions were ubiquitous.
Seeing the first few, I just smiled. A beautiful, well-dressed-fair-skinned young woman, often painted reading a book in a beautiful courtyard is depicted calmly glancing up from her book, to see a huge, winged, very fancy angel confronting her with the news. Often, simultaneously, she is being impregnated in her head by a bolt of light from the heavens, usually emanating from a dove. She doesn’t even flinch. You would think, even though she was purportedly only about fifteen, she might have thought about it for a second and said thanks but no thanks.
What we have her saying is, “My soul doth magnify the lord, and my spirit rejoices.” Clearly, these paintings and these words were by men. I remember being very happy when I discovered I had fallen pregnant, but I was a married woman in my late twenties. Still, I had lost of qualms.
Over the centuries, the church came up with lots of names for Mary, some of them relatively recently. “Queen of Heaven” comes to mind.”T he Immaculate Conception” is an idea the church put forth in the late 1800’s to make sure everyone understands that Mary was born without original sin. From her conception, she was immaculate. There is also a lot of art depicting her bloody heart in an open breast. Sometimes, Jesus is painted and sculpted this way too. People worship and adore the depictions of the “sacred heart.”
I find particularly troublesome, Mary’s being referred to as “Mother of God.” From that I infer that she existed before God. From what I remember from Sunday School, nothing existed before God.
I love Renaissance art and I envy people who are child-like, unquestioning people of faith. But I think the traditional faith of my childhood was lost somewhere in Florence. Too many annunciations
Seeing the first few, I just smiled. A beautiful, well-dressed-fair-skinned young woman, often painted reading a book in a beautiful courtyard is depicted calmly glancing up from her book, to see a huge, winged, very fancy angel confronting her with the news. Often, simultaneously, she is being impregnated in her head by a bolt of light from the heavens, usually emanating from a dove. She doesn’t even flinch. You would think, even though she was purportedly only about fifteen, she might have thought about it for a second and said thanks but no thanks.
What we have her saying is, “My soul doth magnify the lord, and my spirit rejoices.” Clearly, these paintings and these words were by men. I remember being very happy when I discovered I had fallen pregnant, but I was a married woman in my late twenties. Still, I had lost of qualms.
Over the centuries, the church came up with lots of names for Mary, some of them relatively recently. “Queen of Heaven” comes to mind.”T he Immaculate Conception” is an idea the church put forth in the late 1800’s to make sure everyone understands that Mary was born without original sin. From her conception, she was immaculate. There is also a lot of art depicting her bloody heart in an open breast. Sometimes, Jesus is painted and sculpted this way too. People worship and adore the depictions of the “sacred heart.”
I find particularly troublesome, Mary’s being referred to as “Mother of God.” From that I infer that she existed before God. From what I remember from Sunday School, nothing existed before God.
I love Renaissance art and I envy people who are child-like, unquestioning people of faith. But I think the traditional faith of my childhood was lost somewhere in Florence. Too many annunciations