Abstract
As a consequence of the fact that the New Testament mentions few episodes and very few details of the real life of the Virgin Mary, among the Eastern Christian communities several apocryphal legends, that tried to supply this hermetic silence around the birth, infancy, youth, adulthood and death of the Mother of Jesus, arose during the first centuries of Christianity. These apocryphal accounts were then taken up and interpreted catechetically as a useful devotional matter by many Church Fathers, theologians and ecclesiastical writers. The reflections of these prestigious thinkers formed a solid corpus of doctrine, from which very important Marian devotions and liturgical feasts would soon follow. A primordial milestone in this “imaginary” life of Mary is her supernatural birth, after her miraculous conception in the bosom of her old and sterile mother Anne. As a natural fruit of these heterogenous literary and theological sources, from the tenth-eleventh centuries the medieval Byzantine and European artists approached with remarkable enthusiasm the iconographic theme of the Birth of the Virgin Mary as a significant episode of her life. On this basis, in this article we propose a triple complementary objective. First of all, after outlining the essential content of the apocryphal sources, we will broadly analyze the various theological theses that we believe are deductible from the emotional reflections that St. John Damascene expresses in a homily on the subject. Secondly, we will analyze some Byzantine and European paintings on the Birth of Mary, in order to determine to what extent the apocryphal accounts and the doctrinal statements of the Damascene are reflected in the characters, situations, attitudes, accessories and scenographic elements represented in these depictions. Finally, we will state some conclusions that we believe to be plausible in relating the Damascenian texts and the pictorial works of reference.
Highlights
We will analyze some Byzantine and European paintings on the Birth of Mary, in order to determine to what extent the apocryphal accounts and the doctrinal statements of the Damascene are reflected in the characters, situations, attitudes, accessories and scenographic elements represented in these depictions
Likewise –and this interpretation does not cancel the previous one, but completes and perfects it– other experts interpret the basin with its purifying water as an analogy of Christ, who defined himself as the living water capable of satisfying the thirst of the thirsty, or even as a symbol of the Virgin Mary, assumed as Fons Vitae, as the pure and virginal spring from which springs the Water of Life (Jesus Christ)
The remaining elements referred to characters, situations, attitudes, accessories and scenographic ingredients represented in those Eastern and Western paintings are extracted from the factual experience and of the daily life
Summary
Together with the Nativity of Jesus, the Birth of the Virgin Mary is one of the most endearing themes in popular devotion and Christian iconography during the Middle Ages. The Damascene maintains that the Virgin’s birth marks the final rescue of fallen humanity In her view, with Mary a new Eve is born, who will beget this new Adam, who is God Himself made flesh, conceived in a virginal womb to redeem men from the original guilt. The doctor of Damascus does not get tired of emphasizing the antithesis between the ancient Eve, whom, in punishment for her original guilt, God condemns to give birth with pain and to be subject to her husband, and Mary, the new Eve, full of grace and favor of the Lord.37 He does not hesitate to sing with joy the glory of the mother of Jesus, “Dignified daughter of God, beauty of human nature, retrieval of Eve, our first mother!”38. John Damascene’s doctrine in the iconography of the Birth of the Virgin Mary
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