Virgin Mary in Renaissance Art

¶ … 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 to adore Christ rather than to show him the tenderness one might expect of a mother. 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 as she relates to the angel. But perhaps the most striking realism of the work is its portrait of Christ who looks like a real baby, tended to by his mother, in contrast to the young divinity standing proud on a throne in the Masaccio.

Botticelli's work is a depiction of the Virgin in a true, intimate and domestic scene as a human mother. Botticelli's Virgin shows a clear shift in favor of the humanism characteristic of the Renaissance era: "Classical Greek philosophy was also consistent with the new mood of 'Humanism' which arose in Italy at this time. Humanism was a way of thinking which attached more importance to Man and less importance to God. Although Christianity remained the only religion, Humanism reinterpreted it so as to give it a human face.

Thus, for example, religious figures like Evangelists, Saints, Apostles and the Holy Family were portrayed as real-life people, rather than stereotyped and idealized figures" ("Early Renaissance Art (Italy) (1400-1490)," Early Renaissance Art History). Clearly, religiosity was still important to the figures of this era and the Church played a central role in patronizing the art. But the ways in which religious figures took central focus had shifted in a manner that gave, however subtly, equal significance to the human as well as to the divine.

But this humanism is perhaps most starkly manifest in the work of Filippo Lippi, a former Carmelite monk who left his order and later married. His Virgin is clearly a woman, not a symbolic depiction of femininity. "The Virgin Mary is depicted in profile, praying in front of the Child supported by two angels whose faces actually make them look like two rascals or young boys. Behind them is a beautiful landscape inspired by Flemish paintings.

The Virgin's hairstyle is very elegant and embellished with pearls and veils" (Lippi, Madonna with Child and Two Angels). It was rumored that the model for the portrait was Lippi's wife. The Virgin's hair is artfully piled and she has the freshness and vigor of a young girl, underlining her innocence but also her youthful beauty. The boys supporting Christ look playful rather than solemn. This humanistic work is relatively devoid of the symbolism of Lippi's.