Can you guess what event in the life of the Lord is show here? As with our previous quizzes, please give your answer in the comments, and whatever detail you can about the context. (To make this more interesting, please make your answer in the combox before reading the other comments.)
This scene is not taken from the Gospels, but represents Christ taking leave of His Mother before going forth to His passion. Congratulations to those who guessed correctly. None of the answers this month really merits either the Best Non-Serious Answer award or the Best Wildly Incorrect Answer, but the first poster to write the correct answer, thedorkasaurus, would definitely win the Silliest Nom de Comment Award if we had one (we don't.) By the way, the date of the post, September 15th, the feast of the Seven Sorrows, was a clue.
This subject is of course nowhere near as common in art as the Biblical events of Christ's life, but was fairly popular in the 15th and early 16th centuries. In the work of the Dutch painter Gerard David, the emphasis is on the Virgin's courageous acceptance of Her Son's departure; notice that She prays, but does not weep like the woman next to her.
This subject is of course nowhere near as common in art as the Biblical events of Christ's life, but was fairly popular in the 15th and early 16th centuries. In the work of the Dutch painter Gerard David, the emphasis is on the Virgin's courageous acceptance of Her Son's departure; notice that She prays, but does not weep like the woman next to her.
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| From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Ca. 1500, but the metal frame is modern. |
Another version by the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto, made about 1521, shows the Virgin fainting in grief, supported by St. John and a woman, probably his mother Maria Salome.
This subject of the quiz is taken from the liturgical choir of the Basilica of the Virgin Mary in Krakow, Poland. (The church is often called by its Polish name, 'Mariacki'; C in Polish is pronounced TS, and A is long as in "father".) The choir contains several panels from the life of the Virgin, including this scene, also not Biblical, in which Christ appears to His Mother immediately after the Resurrection. More images from the Mariacki will be posted next week.
