Title:
The Immaculate Conception
Artist:
Francisco de Zurbaran
Medium:
Oil on Canvas
Size:
136.5 x 102.5cm
Date:
1661
Location:
Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest.
May
13, 2017, marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the first apparition of the
Virgin Mary to three shepherd children near Fatima, Portugal.
Mary’s
oldest mention by name in the Biblical canon is in Gospel of Mark (6:1-6), when Jesus
returns to his hometown to teach in the synagogue: When the
Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were
amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom
that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t
this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph,
Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offence at
him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his own
town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles
there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed
at their lack of faith.
Since
that first account, much more has been written about Mary. In the 2nd century, St. Irenaeus of Lyons called Mary
the "second Eve", because through her, and her willing acceptance of
God's choice, God undid the harm that was done through Eve's choice to eat the
forbidden fruit. A few centuries later, the theological treatises of Ambrose of
Milan (e.g. ‘De institutione virginis et sanctae Mariae virginitate perpetua ad
Eusebium’) would come to influence several
Popes. Central to Ambrose is the virginity of Mary, and her role as Mother of
God. In the 5th century, the Third Ecumenical Council debated this question, whether Mary should be referred to as Theotokos or Christotokos. Theotokos
means "God-bearer" or "Mother of God"; its use implies that
Jesus, to whom Mary gave birth, is truly God and man in one person. Ultimately,
the council affirmed the use of the title Theotokos, and by doing so affirmed
Jesus' undivided divinity and humanity. Thus, while the debate was over regarding the
proper title for Mary, it was primarily a Christological question about the
nature of Jesus (a question which would return at the Fourth Ecumenical
Council).
Most
recently, on May 13, 1981, on the 64th anniversary of the first Fatima
apparition, Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt. By John Paul
II's own assessment, "It was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's
path," and permitted that "the dying Pope stopped on the threshold of
death." As the assassination attempt had taken place on the feast of Our
Lady of Fatima, the pope had no doubt that his survival was due to the
intervention of the Blessed Virgin. In gratitude, the Pope gave one of the bullets that struck him to the bishop in charge of the Fatima shrine and, to this day, that bullet remains in
the crown of the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary housed there.
Francisco
de Zurbarán (1598 – 1664), was a Spanish painter born of Basque ancestry in
Fuente de Cantos, Badajoz Province. His use of sharply defined colours, minute
detail in simple compositions, and the strongly three-dimensional modelling of
figures all give his paintings a solidity and dignity. His work at its best
fuses two dominant tendencies in Spanish art, realism and mysticism. This
painting is a late work of Zurbarán. The Virgin is a slender, delicate young
girl with an exquisite oval face and golden hair falling to her shoulders, a
vision in white and ultramarine seen against a golden sky peopled with cherubs.
Though lacking in vigour, this late work has all the painterly qualities and
expressive beauty of the great monumental paintings of Zurbarán's early period.
