¶ … Religious Image as Depicted by Three Different Artists: The Virgin Mary in Renaissance art

Portraits of the Virgin and Christ Child began to proliferate in Florence during the Italian Renaissance. There was "a new demand for devotional images on a domestic scale" (Botticelli, Virgin and Child with an Angel). While epic religious portraits remained in vogue in some quarters, in others a new vision came to the forefront that stressed the Holy Family as a family, not merely as divine beings. The sense of the human-divine connection being closer than was conceptualized in the Middle Ages was made manifest in art, particularly when showing Christ at his youngest and most vulnerable.

However, the development of the 'religious domestic' took time to fully unfold in the ideology of the era. For example, the early Renaissance artist Masaccio is well-known for his portraits of the Virgin Mary. However, his work is heavily stylized and while it makes use of common Renaissance symbolism to convey Mary's divine nature, the static nature of his depiction of Mary and Christ lacks the kinesthetic vividness of later Renaissance works. His Virgin and Child (1426) was constructed as the center of an altarpiece. In the work, "the grapes the Child eats refer to the blood shed on the cross and the wine of the Last Supper….the Virgin's dress was a translucent red over silver leaf" (Masaccio, Virgin and Child).

The Virgin holds and adores the Christ child and the large, golden baby dominates the work. This Early Renaissance piece lacks much of the classicism and humanism associated with Renaissance domesticity and has a highly representational, formulaic quality. Mary is virtually motionless and the Christ child and she have no meaningful interaction within the framework of the painting. There is none of the warm relationship one would expect between a real mother and child and Mary appears...

The Virgin is flanked by angels with lutes and Mary sits upon a throne highlighting Christ's status as King of Heaven.
In stark contrast, Botticelli's Virgin and Child with an Angel (early 1970s) is strikingly realistic. It makes use of the greater knowledge possessed by later Renaissance artists of classical anatomy and proportion, concepts that were only gradually reintroduced into the common ways of conceptualizing art during that era. The symbolism is similar, but the work of art is far more realistic even though the symbolism of the grape resonates with the earlier Masaccio: "The angel, Virgin, and Christ Child all look down at a bowl of grapes studded with ears of grain. Grapes and wheat produce the wine and bread of the Eucharist, and allude to the blood and body of Christ's sacrifice" (Botticelli, Virgin and Child with an Angel). But the Virgin in this painting is actively involved in Christ's sacrifice and does not merely adore him and display him as Christ makes his choice. Rather, "the Virgin carefully selects some of the wheat, to signify that she accepts her child's fate" (Botticelli, Virgin and Child with an Angel). There are also angels present in this work, but the symbolism is far more opaque than simple rejoicing: "The angled arcade adds further mystery: like a set of isolated doorways, the structure encloses the figures while it simultaneously frames the landscape beyond" (Botticelli, Virgin and Child with an Angel).

In contrast to the Masaccio, Botticelli's Virgin is kinesthetic, fluid, and supple in her movements. Rather than gold finery, she is recognizably human. Her hair is covered in a veil not shining with a halo. This is also true of the angel who looks like a handsome young man rather than a generic, formulaic stereotype of angelic goodness. Mary seems almost sensuous in a realistic fashion…