The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-05-27
Our
A Literary Table.
SACRED HEART ACADEMY. OGDEN.
MARY IN ART.

HowStrue it is that all true Christian art finds
ITS source IN the spiritual, and springs from a
heart imbued with divine truth
Tradition tells Us st. Luke was the first who
attempted to paint for the admiration of succeed
Ibg generations the beloved face of the Blessed
| Virgin Who, indeed, was so well qualified for the
task as the favored Luke, who learned from the
lips OF the Virgin Mother the incidents of the
divine childhood he has recorded so lovingly III the
gospel
Anxious to increase devotion to Mary Immacu-
late he presented the portraits he had sketched to
! her votaries and rewarded not only by many
conversions, but also received for his zeal the gift
of miracles.
All down the ages pious monks and Jealous
clergy delighted in painting the features of Mary,
the Virgin Mother. Varied, indeed, were these
pictures since each was a type of the reignng
thought OF the period.
Though the copies of medieval times which
adorned the artists cells were often but crude rep
RESERVATIONS, yet these rudely sketched scul p
tured efforts of religious were great stimulus
to devotion to the peerless Queen among women.
But It was not until Cimabue had inaugurated
the Renaissance that Mary was represented in a
manner BETTING her grace and beauty. Then in
deed, the talents of the master artists called
INTO play; and what magnificent results have they
left a heritage to mankind. Among these num-
berless Madonnas that Christian art has given to
the world, none perhaps expresses more eloquenly
the maternal tenderness and adoring love which
animate the Mother Fair as she bends over her
newborn Babe than Corregios' holy Night"
With what delight do we turn to those pictures
which represent the glorious prerogative of our
Mothers Immaculate Conception; and among these
Murllos stands pre-eminent. Whose heart is so
cold as not to be filled with emotion on beholding
Raphaels Madonna" floating peacefully on the
wings OF grace, and extending redemption to all
mankind through her Son. At all times have
artists We'd with one another in painting the life
of the Virgin Queen, and nowhere can we turn
without meeting her in the various joys and sor-
rows which were hers from childhood to her DEATH
The Visitation" the meeting of Mary and
Elizabeth, is as word-renowned as the charity
which inspired the journey. Sometimes Mary is
represented as meditating the great honor God
bestowed on her through the angels Ave Gratia
plena"
The Nativity" OF birth of Christ is but one of
the many works which artists have left behind as
proof of Mhys all-inspring power. The angels
above singing Chrst's glory and the alteration of
the shepherds and wise men, all proclaim the light
that had come to the Gentiles.
Besides the famous Madonnas of the great
masters there are numerous Yotive lLadonnas both
public and private. Their titles usually indicate
the motive for which they were painted, namely, |
devotion thanksgiving; and the names are as
varied as the occasions which called them forth as
the Madonna of Victory" the Madonna of the |
Prague"
However, to the world at large it matters little
whether Mary is represented in art under one or
all these titles They merely serve to distinguish
one painting from another, while she, their pro-
totype is always thought of the Mother of God.
In these our times magazines are doing much to
riffuse knowledge of the great pictures by re-
producing prints of the old masters.
Modern Madonnas, though devoid of that sane
tity and holiness which we naturally expect to find
IN all paintings representing the Mother of God
owe their existence to inspiration in some way
in To he ic n |
when we remember that