Mourning and anger at the foot of the cross: Mary’s pain in thirteenth-century Castile and León

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Latin Marian lament “Quis dabit” (literally “Who will give”) began circulating in thirteenth-century Castile and León at a time when devotion to the Virgin Mary was principally associated with miracles and conquest. A central theme of this popular text was Mary’s physical pain rather than her disembodied mental distress at the foot of the cross. I argue that the reception of “Quis dabit” in Castile and León was twofold. In his Duelo de la virgen, Gonzalo de Berceo (c. 1196 – c. 1260) incorporated medieval mourning traditions to emphasize Mary’s rage (rabia) over the loss of her son, highlighting her military might as queen during an age of conquest. While the illustrators of the Cantigas de Santa María were directly informed by passages from the “Quis dabit” in two unusual representations of Mary grasping Jesus’s crucified feet and gazing up at him, these images echoed only her painful, active sorrow in the “Quis dabit,” rather than her rage. The contrasting treatment of the “Quis dabit” in thirteenth-century Castile and León sheds light on how spiritual practices concentrating on Mary’s pain could be incorporated into devotion to a powerful, conquering queen of heaven.