MEDITATIONS FOR MIDWINTER: PART 4

Title: Alpine Winter Madonna and Child

Artist: Willy Juttner

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 52 x 40 cm

Date: c. 1920

Location: Private Collection

This painting, a depiction of the nursing Madonna (aka Virgo Lactans, or Madonna Lactans), is an iconography of the Madonna and Child in which the Virgin Mary is shown breastfeeding the infant Jesus. Usage of the depiction seems to have intensified with the Cistercian Order in the 12th century, as part of the general upsurge in Marian theology and devotion. Milk was seen as "processed blood", and the milk of the Virgin to some extent paralleled the role of the Blood of Christ. After the Council of Trent in the mid-16th century, clerical writers discouraged nudity in religious subjects, and the use of the Madonna Lactans iconography began to fade away.

Despite the cold blues of the background mountains and plains, there is a distinct warmth in Juttner’s portrayal. The crimson dress of the Madonna alludes to the Blood of Christ, which is, in fact, reflected in the warm rosy glow emanating from the Christ child’s cheeks as he suckles.

Willy Kurt Reinhold Juttner (1886 - 1940) was a Munich based painter and illustrator influenced by the Symbolists. During World War One he produced a very large set of postcards depicting German soldiers engaged in a variety of activities from writing letters to charging into battle. These cards were very popular and were printed in large numbers. In addition to his print work, he was also, as we can see here, a very accomplished painter, and he is known to have taken part in several Munich Exhibitions during his lifetime.

19 IMAGES FROM THE 19th CENTURY: PART 12 - Virgin of the Deliverance

Title: Virgin of the Deliverance
Artist: Ernest Hebert
Medium: Oil on panel
Size: 40.3 x 28.3 cm
Date: c. 1872
Location: The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

19 IMAGES FROM THE 19th CENTURY: PART 12

In art, the term “The Madonna” is applied specifically to an artwork in which Mary, with or without the infant Jesus, is the focus and central figure of the picture. Mary and the infant may be surrounded by adoring angels or worshiping saints, however paintings which have a narrative content are usually given a title that reflects the scene. Half-length paintings of the Madonna and Child are also common in Italian Renaissance painting, particularly in Venice.

This painting is a variant based on a large-scale altarpiece that Hébert painted in time for the Salon of 1872 and that was finally installed in the church of his native town, La Tronche, the following year. Unlike the original altarpiece, which has a patterned background, this version is stylized to recall the conventions of Byzantine icons. The gold ground, raised haloes and Greek letters-mu, rho, theta, and upsilon: the abbreviation of "Maria Theotokos" (Mary God-bearer), often found in Byzantine mosaics-lend the painting a schematic flatness that contrasts dramatically with the otherwise convincingly three-dimensional figures.

Ernest Hebert (November 1817 - December 1908), sometimes known as Antoine Auguste Ernest Hebert, was a French painter and academic. Though he took drawing lessons from the age of ten from the French painter Benjamin Rolland, his father wished him to become a lawyer, and in 1834 he moved to Paris to study law. While there he also studied drawing and painting, and in 1839, the year he passed his law exams, he also won the Prix de Rome for his painting 'The Cup of Joseph Found in the Sack of Benjamin.' During his lifetime Hebert became one of the most highly regarded and decorated painters of his generation, winning medals at several "Expositions Universelles" (World's Fairs), and the Grande Croix of the Legion of Honor in 1903.

Madonna and Child

Title: Madonna and Child

Artist: Marianne Stokes

Medium: Tempera on panel

Size: 80 x 60cm

Date: 1907

Location: Wolverhampton Museum and Art Gallery

In art, the term “The Madonna” is applied specifically to an artwork in which Mary, with or without the infant Jesus, is the focus and central figure of the picture. Mary and the infant may be surrounded by adoring angels or worshiping saints, however paintings which have a narrative content are usually given a title that reflects the scene.

Such “Goddess worship” was not an original component of the Christian church. Shortly before 400 AD, Epiphanius of Salamis found it necessary to denounce women of Thrace, Arabia and elsewhere for worshiping Mary as an actual goddess. It may have been this zealotry to suppress heresies that led to difficulties for the early church in its uphill struggle eclipsing the worship of Isis. Faced with such difficulty church leaders, such as Cyril of Alexandria, began highlighting divine attributes that could be redirected to Mary, Queen of Heaven. It was during this period that a story began to circulate that Mary had been miraculously carried to Heaven by Jesus and his angels.

The Madonna and Child was one of many works Stokes produced based on spiritual themes. Painted in Ragusa on the Dalmatian coast, overlooking the Adriatic Sea, the model for the Virgin Mary was a local village girl. The costume is representative of a traditional Dalmatian costume from the time, and provides a bright focus for Stokes to express her style as a colorist. In the background Stokes surrounds the Holy mother and child with thorny stems seeming to refer to the future crucifixion of Christ.

Marianne Stokes (1855 Graz – August 1927 London), born Marianne Preindlsberger in the Austrian province of Styria, was an Austrian painter. Financially independent after winning a prize for her talent she traveled to France where she studied under such artists as Dagnan-Bouveret and Courtois. She settled in England after her marriage to Adrian Scott Stokes, the landscape painter. Her interest in biblical themes is typical of the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, a group of artists working in the second half of the nineteenth century.