The Virgin Mary: Art During The Renaissance

By nature, culture is holistic. As such, when one key component of a culture changes, the rest must adapt to this change. One of these key components is the arts, with the rest including sustenance, economy, religion, kinship, and politics. The Virgin Mary, one of the biggest icons of the Christian faith, has seen much change in her purpose in the arts; with these changes, viewers also are able to get a better understanding of the culture of the region and time that the piece was created in, as seen as depictions deriving from the late Middle Ages,the early Renaissance, and with the 21st century. Through the dramatic lighting and the placement of figures and objects, many portrayals of the Virgin Mary help to convey the dramatic state of the

Humanism, or the shift in values and focus from religious and supernatural matters to a focus on worldly issues and topics is a key component in defining the culture and art of the Renaissance. While religion was still an important factor in the culture of the time, it earned a different viewpoint by society, and as such, artists’ depictions of religious scenes and of biblical figures saw new developments and different commonalities. The Virgin Mary, being the important icon of the Christian faith that she is, is seen in portrayals from Renaissance art as being a woman, a mother, and most importantly, a human with a humble nature and strong emotions, rather than the previously established standard of portraying her as an idealized female figure and the empress of Heaven (Holy Mary, Drenched in Symbolism). In Nicola Pisano’s The Annunciation and the Nativity (see Figure 1), the viewer is shown the common depiction of the Virgin Mary from art originating from the Renaissance. Typical of the annunciation scene, the angel Gabriel and descended from Heaven in order to tell Mary that she is to have the son of God himself, Christ. The Virgin Mary, however, is shown with a very down to earth reaction to what she has been told; she is taken back at the knowledge that she is to be the vessel of God’s child, gesturing at herself as if questioning Gabriel’s claim. We also see the Virgin Mary being depicted as shocked and in disbelief of the honor that she is being bestowed upon in other Annunciation pieces, such as Figure 2, The Annunciation and the Nativity by Giovanni Pisano. These portrayals of the Virgin Mary as a whole give her a common personality as a very down to earth woman - more human than idol.