The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-10-20
MADONNA IN ART IN ITALY.

WHOONNA I'm All lin I AZ L
The days of the dweller in Rome
recurrence of various saints days and
festivals. On Sunday, Aug. 5, people
crowded to the celebration of the
Feast of Our Lady of the Shows,
which was celebrated in the great
Church of Saint Mary Major, and
showers of white flower petals, recall
ing the traditional origin of this
church, fluttered from the ceiling to
the floor at the high altar and in the
Borghese Chapel. Here, surrounded
by lapis lazuH and precious stones,
and enclosed in frame of richly
carved gilded bronze, the venerable
picture of the Madonna attributed to
Saint Luke was exposed to view
during the day. But while the tradi-
ton of the snow falling on the morn
ing of the 5th of August-one of the
hottest days of the Roman summer
is represented in bronze and marble
bas-reliefs in this chapel the greatest
pictured record of it is that now in
the Gallery San Fernando in Madrid,
the work of Murillo, celebrated for
the number and beauty of his pictures
of the Immaculate Conception.
August Is, the Feast of the Assump-
ton, also celebrated in st. Mary Ma
jor, furnishes another occasion of joy
in hOnoring the Mother of God. If, as
John Ruskin has said, all great Art
is praise, what grand and enduring
TIE Deum' must rise to heaven from
all Italy! The feasts and the saints
days have their special pictures and
statues. BY the very nature of things
the pictures and statues and other
works of great Art dedicated to Our
Lord Jesus Christ far surpass in num-
Der and beauty all others. Then
follow those dedicated to His Holy
Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Eighteen Centuries of Praise.
For eighteen centuries" said the
late Cardinal Ferrata in inaugurating
an exposition Of Catholic Art in the
labored lovingly and constantly
around the dear subject of Mary, feel
ing as if penetrated by sweet en-
chantment, and no one can tell the
number of works which they pro-
duced in honor of Mary. Assuredly,
if it were possible to. gather them
together in one place, we should be-
hold the most beautiful and grandiose
spectacle that the world has ever
contemplated"
Italy is, in a special degree, the
land of the Blessed Virgin That fact
is made evident everywhere. The
whole country is filled with images
of Mary. The journeys of the peas
ant or the traveller on the great high
ways Or in the lonely pathways
through the land are frightened by
the rustic shrines having a picture of
the Madonna in spacious niche of
mason work with lighted lamp in it.,
and punches of wild flowers in tiny
vases. The village streets are made
picturesque by such shrines.
And, in large cities the palaces of
the mobiles, and the market place and
the street corners and fountains are
all decorated with pictures or bas-
reliefs of the Virgin Mother of God.
! Florence, the great art centre of the
world, would from the number and
the artistic quality of it's shrines,
seem to be a great temple dedicated
to the Madonna
In the Catacomb of ST. Priscilla on
the Salarian Way is the earliest
Roman picture of the Madonna with
the Child in her arms, and standing
before her is the Prophet Isaias
pointing to a star over her head. This
work dates from about the year $50
A. D. The figure of the Madonna is
| that of a Roman matron, and in pose
and arrangement has marked re-
semblance to the well known
Madonna della Seggiola' of Raphael
in Florence, though in all probability
he never saw this Catacomb picture.
Pictures in Catacombs.
Nearly the whole cycle of pictures
of the Madonna, excepting those asso
ciated with the Passion and Death Of
her Divine Son, are to be met with il
/ the Catacombs.
What library of volumes would bt
required to describe the pictures tina
are to be met with all over Italy: oil
the mountain tops amid the SHOWS O
Apennines, above the sea ports where
the white marble statue of the Ma
donna is the first familiar object tt
greet the eyes of the returning mar
liner; in palaces, in streets, on tn,
facade of churches, in converts an,
in the humble dwellings of the peas
antry-in fact wherever human be
ings congregate in civil life or evel
in the lone woods where a hermit re
tires into solitude.
Thrice in the day the weary feet O
the laborer are stayed while he re
cites the Angelica Salutation t
Mary Indeed in DictIIrnS and statue