scholarly journals Ukrainian Icons Theotokos Mother of Mercy (New Iconographic Interpretation of Traditional Plot)

2021 ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
Liubov Burkovska ◽  

Baroque trends, which have been extended in the Ukrainian religious art of the late 17th – early 18th centuries, contributed to the expansion of its thematic composition, stylistic changes and the emergence of new iconographic plots. The icons Theotokos Mother of Mercy, or the Cossack Intercession, as they are also called, are a clear example of the renewal of themes in Ukrainian religious art during the Baroque period. This iconographic version of the Intercession, apparently, is borrowed from Western European painting; it is correlated with the compositional type of the image of the Intercession of the Theotokos – Madonna della Misericordia – popular in Italian art. It is supposed, that the image of the Blessed Virgin, covering the parish with the mantle, has been inspired by the vision of the Cistercian monk, theologian and writer Caesar of Geisterbach, who describes it in his Dialogus Miraculorum (1221). Formation of the iconography Madonna della Misericordia in Western European art has started in the 13th century. The Virgin usually stands on the early images. The Christians staying under the protection of the Virgin Mary are depicted on their knees and in a much smaller scale. The icons Madonna della Misericordia have been often ordered by specific groups of believers, such as fraternities, professional guilds, monasteries and abbeys. The theme of the Intercession of Theotokos of the iconographic version Theotokos Mother of Mercy has taken a special place in the Ukrainian iconography of the Baroque period. The image of the Patroness, blessing and covering the faithful with her mantle, has attracted Ukrainian masters with the realism and majesty of the compositional plan. The popularity and rapid dissemination of this iconographic variety of the Intercession have been caused also by the fact that it presents individualized images of people from different layers of the that time society with special penetration. Contemplating the icons of the Intercession in the temples, the believers have seen obviously a powerful and merciful patroness in the image of the Mother of God. Ukrainian icons Theotokos Mother of Mercy of the 17th – early 18th centuries are filled with the search for a new artistic expressiveness, reveal the nature of the transition period and the peculiarities of the process of formation of a new stylistic system of sacred painting.

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4 Zeszyt specjalny) ◽  
pp. 57-71
Author(s):  
Urszula Mazurczak

The letter of the Holy Father John Paul II written in Rome in 1987, in the tenth year of His pontificate, on December 4th, on the day of memorial of Saint John Damascene, the doctor of the Church, on the Twelfth Centenary of finishing the controversy over the icon, is of great importance for the Pope’s program of ecumenism. The Holy Father indicated various directions of the dialogue, however, the one of the utmost importance concerned the agreement with the Orthodox Church, which was confirmed in the letters and in His other documents quoted in this paper. The image used to be essential for religious practice, for illustrating the word of prayer and of the song, in order to preserve the tradition of the Church. The strict prohibition introduced by the iconoclasm depreciated not only the artistic tradition of paintings but also the basic dogmas of Christ’s Incarnation and the one which introduced Virgin Mary as the Theotokos (the God-bearer). The ban constituted a threat not only for the icons but also for the Christian faith. In His Letter, the Pope underlined the important role of the Second Council of Nicaea which reintroduced icons and maintained and deepened the meaning of the cult in the faith of believers. Furthermore, the Holy Father indicated the connection with the Second Vatican Council in understanding the function and form of images in contemporary Church. Contemporary trends are overwhelmed by the impotence of the spiritual expression of sacral art, which is a great concern for the Pope. The Letter is, therefore, a dramatic warning of the threats for religious art in contemporary time, expressed by the Holy Father with these words: ‘The rediscovery of the Christian icon will also help in raising the awareness of the urgency of reacting against the depersonalizing and at times degrading effects of the many images that condition our lives in advertisements and the media.’ (DS, 11).


2011 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
Milutin Tadic ◽  
Aleksandar Petrovic

The subject of the paper is an exact analysis of the orientation of the Serbian monastery churches: the Church of the Virgin Mary (13th century), St. Nicholas' Church (13th century), and an early Christian church (6th century). The paper determines the azimuth of parallel axes in churches, and then the aberrations of those axes from the equinoctial east are interpreted. Under assumption that the axes were directed towards the rising sun, it was surmised that the early Christian church's patron saint could be St. John the Baptist, that the Church of the Virgin Mary was founded on Annunciation day to which it is dedicated, and that St. Nicholas' Church is oriented in accordance with the rule (?toward the sunrise?) even though its axis deviates from the equinoctial east by 41? degrees.


Author(s):  
Jane de Gay

This chapter examines Woolf’s appreciation of the complex role played by the Virgin Mary in Western cultures, particularly as she has been represented in art from the Renaissance to the modernist era. The chapter shows that Woolf was deeply critical of the way in which society has used the Virgin Mary as an impossible role-model for women, but also interested in ways in which Mary can be regarded as an empowering figure. The chapter focuses particularly on Woolf’s allusions to the figure of the Madonna in Renaissance religious art in To the Lighthouse and The Waves, and also considers her encounters with ritual and art on her visits to Italy.


1986 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac Estrada

Apparitions of the Virgin of Guadeloupe in Mexico arose in the course of the seventeenth century, during the transition period in the economic and social order induced by Spanish cólonization. This cult of the Virgin Mary can be viewed as a hybrid indigenous product, the fruit of a syncretism between the Virgin introduced by the colonized and the Goddess Tanatzin, the old goddess of life.


1962 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 662-662 ◽  

The Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) held the second part of its seventh ordinary session in Paris on December 11–15, 1961, under the presidency of Mr. Arthur Conte (French Socialist). In addition to discussing the state of European security, the Assembly debated questions concerning Berlin and the agricultural problems involved in the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Economic Community (EEC). The debate on agriculture was concerned with the implementation of recommendation 53, adopted in November 1960, in which the Assembly had called for negotiations for the accession of the United Kingdom to the EEC as a full member. Mr. Sicco Mansholt, vice-chairman of the EEC Commission, stated that if the United Kingdom entered the EEC, her agriculture would not have to overcome any exceptional difficulties which would justify a longer transition period than that of the six original members. He stated that this conclusion had been reached after a detailed comparison of relative prices and outputs in the United Kingdom and the six members of EEC. The Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, presented by Mr. Hubert Leynen (Belgian Social Christian), calling upon the seven member governments of WEU to spare no effort to insure the success of the Brussels negotiations.


2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-121
Author(s):  
Kimberly VanEsveld Adams

AbstractThis study of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Madonna-figures questions some influential arguments about the novelist's treatment of motherhood and domesticity. Critics such as Jane Tompkins, Elizabeth Ammons, and Gillian Brown have claimed that the novels privilege an alternative maternal culture and may even present the Christian Savior in feminized terms. But the early novels in fact reveal the gender restrictions of nineteenth-century Protestantism, which allowed no sanctified female roles. Uncle Tom's Cabin and Dred, for example, have Christ-figures but no Madonnas. Stowe's travels overseas, which exposed her to European religious art, and her gradual movement from the Congregational to the Episcopal church (documented by John Gatta), had a profound impact on two subsequent novels, The Minister's Wooing and Agnes of Sorrento. Here, for the first time, female characters are made Madonna-figures. But the novelist presents them as contemplative saints and prophetic virgins, rather than as mothers. Only in her late religious writings does Stowe portray the biblical Mary as not only prophet and poet but also mother—and then in an inimitable way. In The Minister's Wooing and Agnes as well as her religious writings, Stowe examines the New Testament sisters Martha and Mary of Bethany, who in church tradition represent, respectively, the active and the contemplative life. These discussions reveal the conflict the author experienced between her domestic responsibilities and artistic vocation, and her misgivings about many of the maternal characters found throughout her fiction. Stowe's contemplative and creative Mary-figures include Mary Scudder, Agnes, and the Virgin Mary herself. The contrasting Martha-figures are domestic geniuses but have “worldly” values, which sometimes threaten their daughters' happiness. These Marthas, who are increasingly subjected to authorial criticism, suggest some needed qualifications of arguments for the consistently positive valence of motherhood and domesticity in Stowe.


POETICA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 180-227
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Schulze-Witzenrath

Abstract Expressions and gestures of mourning for the loved one have been a theme of religious art from early on. In the Middle Ages, after the discovery of the suffering Christ (“Christus patiens”), they are shown in numerous depictions of the crucifixion, especially in those of the taking down of the cross. Since the 13th century, the attitude of “compassion”, which commemorates Christ’s act of redemption and, according to theological interpretation, thereby brings about one’s own salvation, has promoted empathy with the other. After the theme had been increasingly treated aesthetically in painting, non-religious models of mourning also appeared in poetry from the 16th century onwards, whose actions were oriented towards the respective epoch-specific image of man (passion, ecstasy). The article analyses relevant poetic and musical works.


Author(s):  
Marie Vautier

Nicole Brossard’s Hier and Diane Schoemperlen’s Our Lady of the Lost and Found were published in 2001. Both novels explore contemporary “turns” in the humanities—turns that can be seen as a betrayal of the secular worldview and the focus on the New World that dominated our literary concerns of the late twentieth century. Brossard’s text “betrays” contemporary literary and cultural considerations in its foregrounding of accumulated Old World knowledge and religious art. In Hier, Brossard makes multiple references to two religious figures of Catholicism: Marie Guyart—Marie de l’Incarnation, the founder of the Ursuline order in Québec—and the Virgin Mary. In this novel, Brossard is beginning to explore the idea of looking to those women associated with the mystical world, knowledge of whom is buried in our collective memories, in order to turn to mysticism as a way of accessing that “high” provided by metaphysical experiences. Diane Schoemperlen’s novel, Our Lady of the Lost and Found (Our Lady), reveals a number of similar preoccupations to those found in Brossard’s Hier. In Our Lady, a narrator/writer, is “visited” by the Virgin Mary near the beginning of the novel, and the text then alternates between credible domestic scenes and stories of other Marian apparitions, most of which, as Schoemperlen assures us in an afterword, are “based on actual documented accounts” (Our Lady 339). Our Lady contains many reflective passages: comments on historiography; philosophy; and reflections on the nature of story, truth, science and history. The didactic impulse is very strong in both novels, and the urge to teach is centered on works of religious art from Old World civilizations. Faced with the turmoil of the contemporary world, the narrator of Our Lady explores that other world: the world of miracles, Marian apparitions and the thin place to which the act of writing takes one. In this article, Marie Vautier explores how these two 2001 novels highlight mystical women of the religious past, in their discussion of art, culture, the Old World versus the New World, and the limits of the contemporary worldview in a (re)turn to mysticism and summa plus ultra experiences. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 3553
Author(s):  
Endre Kolossváry ◽  
Martin Björck ◽  
Christian-Alexander Behrendt

Thirty years after the transition period, starting from 1989, Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), representing one-fifth of the entire European population, share many historical, societal, political, economic, and cultural characteristics. Although accumulating data on coronary heart diseases and cerebrovascular diseases support these observations, in the case of peripheral arterial disease, data are scarce. The present review attempts to summarise the shreds of data that may highlight a divide in this field between CEECs and Western European countries. Disparities in risk factors and peripheral vascular care across Europe seem to be tangible and can be seen as a signal of existing differences. Improvements in research and development and the collection and cross-border share of scientific data are essential to initiate and facilitate convergence in this field.


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