The "Mother and Child" image was already in use among many pagan
religions. One of the best known is the goddess Isis holding her
son Horus in her arms, and these effigies were adopted by
the first Christians, though with a different meaning, as
with many other pagan symbols.
Its use became even more
widespread after the Council of Ephesus in 431, when the divine
nature of the maternity of Mary, who was not only the mother
of Jesus Christ as a man, but also of God himself, was
confirmed in opposition to the heretical position of the
Nestorians. The allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs
by Bernardo di Chiaravalle (1090-1153), with his
identification of the Virgin as the bride in the poem,
contributed considerably towards the spread of the worship of the
Madonna in the Middle Ages.
This same theologian also inspired a
movement called "Mariolatry" which, in the 13th century,
led to the definite affirmation of the worship of Mary, and
corresponded with the age of great religious ardour that followed
the Crusades. The iconographic image of the Virgin Mary and the
Child had been in use in Byzantine art since the 7th century,
long before becoming so popular in the West. The usual model is a
frontal view of a stately Madonna and Child who, in an
equally upright position and with his back to his Mother,
is shown fully dressed and in benediction. This type of
composition was replaced in the 14th century by other less formal
images that emphasised the more earthly and intimate
aspects of the relationship between Mother and Child. The
most usual composition shows the Madonna portrayed half bust,
wearing a red dress and blue cloak, and holding the Child in a
series of different poses that are inspired by precise
iconographic models, such as the Virgin shown in a rose garden
(the Madonna of the Rose Garden), sitting enthroned (the Madonna
in Majesty) or on the ground (the Madonna of Humility); she can
be also shown feeding the Child (the Madonna of Milk), at
prayer (the Madonna at prayer) or reading (the Madonna of the
Book).
These scenes of the Madonna and Child often show the
baby Jesus holding some symbolic religious object in his
hands. The apple, fruit of the tree of good and evil, is one of
the most frequent, in allusion to the redemption of the original
sin. The grape symbolises the wine of the Eucharist and
therefore the blood of the Redeemer. The pomegranate was formerly
one of the symbols of the goddess Proserpine, who renewed life on
earth every Spring; later the Christians associated it with
the concept of immortality, so that it became one of the symbols
of the Resurrection. The bird, usually a goldfinch, has kept the
same meaning it had in pagan religion, when it symbolised
the soul of man that flies away at the moment of death.
|
