what made this representation of the virgin mary revolutionary apex

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Under an arched structure, five women gather around a baby as two men sit outside the room in this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin with a faint greenish cast. The women have blond hair and the men have gray hair. To our right, a ruby-red curtain has been drawn back along the long side of a bed, and a woman there reclines propped on one elbow, facing into the room. She wears a white veil that covers her hair, neck, and shoulders and a sky-blue robe edged with gold over a navy-blue dress. Her head is encircled with a gold halo, and she looks down toward the baby at the center of the painting. Her wrists are crossed over a gold bowl, and an attendant standing next to the bed pours water from a gold pitcher over her hands. The attendant wears a forest-green dress and a white cloth is wrapped over her head. A pair of women sitting on the floor near the bed hold the infant, who has a gold halo around short, blond hair. Wrapped in a white cloth, the baby stands on the lap of one woman, who wears a rose-pink dress and a white cloth wrapped around her hair. The second woman in this pair, to our left, wears a golden yellow robe over a scarlet-red dress, and her braided hair is wound around her head. She holds both hands up in front of the baby, who looks at her, facing our left in profile. A gold bowl with a flaring foot sits on the floor in front of this trio. Coming through a darkened doorway behind them, a fifth woman wearing a topaz-blue dress enters carrying a gold dish. To our left, the two bearded men sit with their backs to the gray, stone wall enclosing the room with the women. The man closer to us has a long gray beard, and his wavy hair is surrounded by a gold halo. He looks to our left in profile and wears a rose-pink robe edged with gold, over a light blue garment. The second man angles his body toward his neighbor and gestures with one raised finger. The second man has a trimmed, gray beard and he wears a slate-blue robe over a butter-yellow garment. The structure enclosing the scene is made up of several arched openings that do not quite fit together to create a cohesive room. The upper, outer corners of the building are missing, as if in ruin. The background above is shiny gold that has been worn away in some areas to show the red layer underneath.

Andrea di Bartolo

The Nativity of the Virgin, c. 1400/1405

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 3

tempera on poplar panel

painted surface: 44.2 × 32.5 cm (17 3/8 × 12 13/16 in.) overall: 46.7 × 33.9 × 0.6 cm (18 3/8 × 13 3/8 × 1/4 in.)

framed: 48.3 x 36.8 x 4.1 cm (19 x 14 1/2 x 1 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

Artists / makers.

Andrea di Bartolo (painter) Sienese, active from 1389 - died 1428

This image is in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Copy-and-paste citation text:

Miklós Boskovits (1935–2011), “Andrea di Bartolo/ The Nativity of the Virgin /c. 1400/1405,” Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries , NGA Online Editions, https://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/183 (accessed August 23, 2024).

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Technical Summary

Bibliography, related content, altarpiece reconstruction.

This painting presents the birth of the Virgin as a domestic tableau. Behind the parted red curtain of her bed, Mary’s mother, Anna, rests after giving birth. Her husband, Joachim, sits outside the bedchamber; his is no ordinary child, and he appears lost in thought, unaware of his companion. The infant Mary stands on sturdy legs supported and admired by two serving women, as another pours water from a pitcher so Anna can wash her hands. A fourth woman enters through the doorway, bringing a roasted chicken to the new mother. She looks out of the picture directly, drawing us into the scene. The emphasis on the human and the familiar—that chicken is almost in the center of the painting—made the Virgin and her family approachable to viewers and brought sacred events into the sphere of their own experience.

This and two other small paintings by Andrea di Bartolo at the National Gallery of Art, Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple   and The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple , were all part of one altarpiece. They depict scenes from the childhood of the Virgin, and must have been joined originally by many other panels—now lost—illustrating episodes from Mary’s life. Because the surviving panels share vertical wood grain, scholars have theorized that they were probably all connected, one on top of another. We do not know what was featured on the center panel; it might have been an Annunciation, Mary’s coronation as Queen of Heaven, or another subject (see Reconstruction ).

The scenes from the life of the Virgin painted by Andrea are based on an apocryphal text called De Ortu Beatae Mariae et Infantia Salvatoris , attributed to the evangelist Matthew. Later sources enriched this narrative with additional episodes. According to the legend, the marriage of Joachim (father of the Virgin Mary) and Anna remained childless for many years, a state that was interpreted by the high priest of the temple in Jerusalem as punishment for grave sins. Therefore, Joachim’s offering of a sacrificial lamb was rejected, and he was expelled from the temple. The scene represented in this work is usually identified as Joachim and the Beggars but refers instead to a previous episode in the life of Mary’s parents. A version of the legend, evidently familiar in Tuscany, recounts that Joachim and Anna lived in a particularly charitable way, dividing all their worldly goods into three parts: a third was allocated to the poor, another third to the temple, and only a third was kept for their own needs. [12]     [12] The narrative of the Pseudo-­Matthew was supplemented with other episodes by a German priest named Wernher in the mid-twelfth century. His Driv liet von der maget ( Three Books on the Virgin ) is the first source to mention the story of the division of Joachim’s worldly goods for charitable purposes; see Gertrud Schiller, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst , 6 vols. (Gütersloh, 1966 – ​1990), 4, pt. 2: 54 – ​55; W. J. Hoffman, “Wernher,” in Marienlexikon , ed. Remigius Bäumer and Leo Scheffczyk, 6 vols. (St. Ottilien, 1994), 6:716 – ​717. In the panel at the Gallery, we see, to the left, Joachim distributing loaves of bread to the poor, while his wife is presiding over the delivery of sacks of grain to the temple, where a priest receives them. This episode would have been followed by the lost scene of the priest’s rejection of the offering of a sacrificial animal and the Expulsion from the Temple, the premise for Joachim’s Abandonment of the City, which is described in the painting now in Esztergom.

At this point in the sequence, other episodes usually illustrated in cycles of the childhood of Mary are likely to have followed: namely, the Angel’s Annunciation of the Birth of Mary both to Joachim and to Anna, and the Return of Joachim to the City, linked with the Meeting of Husband and Wife at the Golden Gate. In the following scene of the Nativity of the Virgin, Andrea faithfully followed the model proposed by his father, Bartolo di Fredi, in the cycle of frescoes in the church of Sant’Agostino at San Gimignano and elsewhere: [13]     [13] The scene frescoed by Bartolo in Sant’Agostino at San Gimignano was repeated with small variations by the same painter in the predella fragment, part of the altarpiece commissioned from Bartolo for the church of San Francesco at Montalcino and now in the local Museo Civico. See Gaudenz Freuler, Bartolo di Fredi Cini: Ein Beitrag zur sienesischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts (Disentis, 1994), figs. 34, 37. The young Andrea probably collaborated in the execution of this part of the Montalcino altarpiece. in the foreground at the center we see a young woman seated on the ground, supporting with one arm the newborn child who stands on her lap, back turned to the viewer, while another woman, also crouched on the ground, is gesturing with both hands towards the child, as if inviting the baby girl to come to her arms. Further in the background we see two standing women: one is just entering the room through a door in the rear wall, bearing a bowl of food in her hands; the other is pouring water into a basin for the child’s mother to wash her hands. Anna is shown reclining on the skillfully foreshortened bed to the right, its curtain drawn back. On the other side of the scene, Joachim and another elderly man are seated in a barrel-vaulted loggia adjacent to the room of the childbirth, awaiting news of the event. The following scene, The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple , also resembles the corresponding fresco by Bartolo in San Gimignano, [14]     [14] Reproduced in Gaudenz Freuler, Bartolo di Fredi Cini: Ein Beitrag zur sienesischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts (Disentis, 1994), fig. 27. but in this case both paintings reveal the influence of a celebrated prototype frescoed by Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti on the facade of the Ospedale della Scala in Siena. [15]     [15] This lost cycle on the façade of the Ospedale della Scala is now known only from descriptions in the sources. Various scholars have proposed the involvement in it not only of the Lorenzetti brothers but also of Simone Martini (Sienese, active from 1315; died 1344) ; cf. Daniela Gallavotti Cavallero, “Pietro, Ambrogio e Simone, 1335, e una questione di affreschi perduti,” Prospettiva 48 (1987): 69 – ​74, and for a recent summary of the status questionis, see Wolfgang Loseries, in Maestri senesi e toscani nel Lindenau – ​Museum di Altenburg , ed. Miklós Boskovits and Johannes Tripps (Siena, 2008), 130 n. 17. The scene represents the episode of the three-year-old Mary being taken by her parents to the temple; the child spontaneously ascends the flight of steps to the temple, where she would reside until the age of fourteen. By painting the temple at an angle to the picture plane, displaced to the right side of the composition, Andrea seems, however, more faithful to his father’s more dynamic and “modern” composition than to the Lorenzettian model.

After initial attempts to attribute the three panels to Bartolo di Fredi, [16]     [16] In manuscript expertises (some of them dated 1934), Giuseppe Fiocco, Raimond van Marle, Osvald Sirén, Wilhelm Suida, and Adolfo Venturi all proposed an attribution of the three panels to Bartolo di Fredi. According to the manuscript opinion of F. Mason Perkins, however, the panels were attributable not to Bartolo himself but to an “exceptionally close and as yet unidentified pupil.” See Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings , 2 vols. (Washington, DC, 1979), 1:4, and copies of the expertises in NGA curatorial files. art historians in general accepted them (and also the fourth now in Esztergom) as the work of Andrea. [17]     [17] Roberto Longhi made the attribution to Andrea di Bartolo in an undated expertise most likely written in 1934, like the others cited in the previous note; see Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings , 2 vols. (Washington, DC, 1979), 1:4. Bernard Berenson endorsed this proposal (in an autograph annotation written on the back of a photograph of The Nativity ), though with the specification “in great part.” Copies in NGA curatorial files. The generally accepted date for them is c. 1400 or shortly thereafter. [18]     [18] The dating “c. 1400” already appeared in the entry relating to the three panels in the National Gallery of Art, Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture (Washington, DC, 1941), 3, and was confirmed in the various successive catalogs of the Gallery, as well as by Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, xiii – ​xv Century (London, 1966), 65 – ​66; Enzo Carli, I pittori senesi (Siena, 1971), 138; Enzo Carli, La pittura senese del Trecento (Milan, 1981), 238; Giulietta Chelazzi Dini, in Il gotico a Siena: Miniature, pitture, oreficerie, oggetti d’arte (Florence, 1982), 317; Valentina Maderna, ed., Il polittico di Andrea di Bartolo a Brera restaurato (Florence, 1986), 17; and Philippe Lorentz, “De Sienne a Strasbourg: Posterité d’une composition d’Ambrogio Lorenzetti, la Nativité de la Vierge de l’Hôpital Santa Maria della Scala à Sienne,” in Hommage à Michel Laclotte: Etudes sur la peinture du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance (Paris, 1994), 125 repro., 126, 127, 130 – ​131 n. 45. Miklós Boskovits, Early Italian Panel Paintings (Budapest, 1966), 40; András Mucsi, Katalog der Alten Gemälde­galerie des Christlichen Museums zu Esztergom (Budapest, 1975), 42; Eberhard Kasten, “Andrea di Bartolo,” in Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker , ed. Günter Meißner (Munich, 1992), 3:512, 514, proposed, instead, a less specific date for the three panels in the first decade of the fifteenth century. A proposal to insert them into the catalog of Giorgio di Andrea [19]     [19] Laurence B. Kanter, “Giorgio di Andrea di Bartolo,” Arte cristiana 74 (1986): 22. Corrado Fratini rejected this rather audacious attribution in Pinacoteca comunale di Città di Castello , vol. 1, Dipinti, Catalogo regionale dei beni culturali dell’Umbria , ed. Francesco Federico Mancini (Perugia, 1987), 143 – ​144; see also Elisabetta Avanzati, in La Sede storica del Monte dei Paschi di Siena: Vicende costruttive e opere d’arte , ed. Francesco Gurrieri and Luciano Bellosi (Florence, 1988), 276 – ​280; Michel Laclotte and Esther Moench, Peinture italienne: Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon (Paris, 2005), 56; and Andrea De Marchi, in Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, catalogo generale , vol. 1, Dal Duecento a Francesco Francia , ed. Jadranka Bentini, Gian Piero Cammarota, and Daniela Scaglietti Kelescian (Venice, 2004), 183 – ​184. has found no acceptance in the literature. G. Fattorini described the three Washington panels as akin to the Adoration of the Magi in the Salini collection (Castello di Gallico, near Asciano, Siena), which he dated to the first decade of the fifteenth century. [20]     [20] According to G. Fattorini, in  La collezione Salini: Dipinti, sculture e oreficerie dei secoli XII, XIII, XIV e XV , ed. Luciano Bellosi, 2 vols. (Florence, 2009), 1:238, the painting was possibly decorated with the very same punches as the Washington stories of the Virgin.

From a stylistic point of view, the scenes from the childhood of Mary can be compared with such paintings as the six stories of Saint Galgano now divided between the Museo Nazionale in Pisa and the National Gallery in Dublin (these, too, most likely originated as parts of a panel in the form of a dossal); [21]     [21] Enzo Carli,  Il Museo di Pisa  (Pisa, 1974), 61–62. Suggested dating: probably before 1400. various portable triptychs in the museums of Altenburg, [22]     [22] Francesca Pasut, in  Maestri senesi e toscani nel Lindenau–Museum di Altenburg , ed. Miklós Boskovits and Johannes Tripps (Siena, 2008), 104–106, with dating c .  1395–1400. Philadelphia, [23]     [23] No. JC Cat. 99; see Carl Brandon Strehlke, Italian Paintings, 1250 – ​1450, in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 2004), 37 – ​41. Suggested dating: c. 1394. Prague, [24]     [24] Nn. O11.919 – ​O11.921. See Olga Pujmanová, Italienische Tafelbilder des Trecento in der Nationalgalerie Prag (Berlin, 1984), no. 20. Suggested dating: c. 1400. and Siena; [25]     [25] No. 133; see Piero Torriti, La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena , vol. 1, I dipinti dal xii al xv secolo (Genoa, 1977), 203, with dating to the early years of the fifteenth century. or the paintings on a casket in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. [26]     [26] Alessandro Cecchi, in  Il gotico a Siena: Miniature, pitture, oreficerie, oggetti d’arte  (Florence, 1982), 328–331, with dating to c. 1400–1410. Unfortunately, none of these paintings is securely dated. Since the only documented works of the painter have been lost, the one secure point of reference for the chronology of his career remains the fragmentary polyptych in the Church of the Osservanza at Siena, dated 1413. [27]     [27] See Raimond van Marle,  The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting , vol. 2,  The Sienese School of the 14th Century  (The Hague, 1924), 576, and Antonio Vannini,  L’Osservanza di Siena: Guida artistica della chiesa e del convento di San Bernardino all’Osservanza  (Siena, 2004), 40–41. The lack of other secure points of reference explains why the chronological reconstruction of Andrea’s works remains so beset by uncertainty. For example, his signed Assumption of the Virgin (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond) sometimes is considered to belong to his early period, and sometimes to his full maturity. [28]     [28] Hendrik W. van Os, “Andrea di Bartolo’s Assumption of the Virgin,” Arts in Virginia 2 (1971): 5, dated the painting now in Richmond (no. 54.11.3; 230.2 × 85 cm) “in the seventies” of the fourteenth century. Gaudenz Freuler, “Andrea di Bartolo, Fra Tommaso d’Antonio Cafarini, and Sienese Dominicans in Venice,” The Art Bulletin 69 (1987): 584, pushed its date forward to the latter years of the century, given that Ser Palamedes, in whose memory the painting was commissioned, was still alive in 1394. Art historians in general, however, have continued to regard the panel as a youthful work of the artist. See Elisabetta Avanzati, in La Sede storica del Monte dei Paschi di Siena: Vicende costruttive e opere d’arte , ed. Francesco Gurrieri and Luciano Bellosi (Florence, 1988), 282; Carl Brandon Strehlke, Italian Paintings, 1250 – ​1450, in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 2004), 27. The present writer has long maintained (and still believes) that Andrea di Bartolo’s stories of Christ, divided between the museums of Toledo in Ohio, Bologna, and private collections, probably belong to the Richmond Assumption. It is generally recognized as a work of the artist’s full maturity; cf. Andrea De Marchi, in Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, catalogo generale , vol. 1, Dal Duecento a Francesco Francia , ed. Jadranka Bentini, Gian Piero Cammarota, and Daniela Scaglietti Kelescian (Venice, 2004), 183 – ​184, with a suggested dating of c. 1420. The common origin of the dispersed predella and the Richmond panel is suggested both by their stylistic character and their size. The width of the panel with the Assumption (measuring 230.2 × 85 cm) matches that of the Toledo Crucifixion (50 × 84.3 cm) that would in origin have been placed below it, at the center of the predella. See Miklós Boskovits and Serena Padovani, The Thyssen-­Bornemisza Collection: Early Italian Painting 1290 – ​1470 (London, 1990), 21. Some clues for a reconstruction of the artist’s career can, I believe, be deduced from the miniatures painted by Andrea for the choir-books of the Eremo di Lecceto near Siena, probably during the 1390s. [29]     [29] The miniatures of antiphonary H.1.7 now in the Biblioteca Comunale of Siena are dated c. 1400; cf. Giulietta Chelazzi Dini, in Il gotico a Siena: Miniature, pitture, oreficerie, oggetti d’arte (Florence, 1952), 320 – ​321; Gaudenz Freuler, “La miniatura senese degli anni 1370 – ​1420,” in La miniatura senese 1270 – ​1420 , ed. Cristina De Benedictis (Milan, 2002), 182 – ​186. The illuminations of a missal, G.III.7 in the same library, are at least in part probably attributable to Andrea in a slightly earlier phase, as Chelazzi Dini proposed in Il gotico a Siena: Miniature, pitture, oreficerie, oggetti d’arte (Florence, 1982), 317 – ​318. The strong compositional simplification and charged color of these miniatures reveal significant affinities with the scenes from the life of the Virgin being discussed here, and thus seem to confirm that they belong to a relatively precocious phase in Andrea’s career.

Comparisons of the Gallery’s panels with the figures of saints in the Church of the Osservanza in Siena (1413), on the other hand, show that the latter belong to a more advanced phase in the artist’s career. Some lateral panels of polyptychs, such as that in Tuscania Cathedral, of which the predella has also survived, are easier to compare with the Osservanza saints. In contrast to the tall and slender saints of the Osservanza, who wear draperies furrowed by long, close-set, sharply undercut folds, those of Tuscania are more robust in physique and more placid in expression; their statuesque figures seem to indicate an earlier date of execution, somewhat closer in style to the group of miniatures Andrea probably realized in the last decade of the fourteenth century. [30]     [30] On the Tuscania polyptych, cf. Luisa Mortari, in La pittura viterbese dal xiv al xvi secolo: Catalogo delle opere , ed. Italo Faldi and Luisa Mortari (Viterbo, 1954), 29 – ​30, and Laurence B. Kanter, “Giorgio di Andrea di Bartolo,” Arte cristiana 74 (1986): 17 – ​24. Kanter’s proposed reconstruction of the altarpiece, and his addition to it of components now situated elsewhere, seems correct, but it is difficult to share his attribution of it to Giorgio d’Andrea or his dating to the 1420s. This date, formerly accepted also by the present writer, now seems to me too late and should, I believe, be modified to 1405 – ​1410; cf. Miklós Boskovits and Serena Padovani, The Thyssen-­Bornemisza Collection: Early Italian Painting 1290 – ​1470 (London, 1990), 21. Gabriele Fattorini came to similar conclusions concerning the date of the Tuscania polyptych in La collezione Salini: Dipinti, sculture e oreficerie dei secoli XII, XIII, XIV e XV, ed. Luciano Bellosi, 2 vols. (Florence, 2009), 1:242 – ​249. If this conclusion is correct, and if therefore the crowded scenes thronged with corpulent and largely immobile figures in the predella in Tuscania testify to Andrea’s art around 1405 – ​1410, it seems reasonable to propose a dating to the very first years of the Quattrocento for the Gallery’s scenes from the life of the Virgin. The compositions in these panels are reduced to essentials, and no signs are yet visible either of the more spacious layout of the scenes or of the greater liveliness of the figures that can be seen in the stories of Christ in the now dispersed predella that should probably be connected with the Assumption in Richmond and in other altarpieces reasonably considered later than the Osservanza saints. [31]     [31] Apart from polyptych no. 220 of the Pinacoteca in Siena, generally considered a late work of Andrea, I refer to the polyptych in Sant’Angelo in Vado, now divided between the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and the Galleria Nazionale in Urbino, and the dispersed predella reconstructed around the Crucifixion no. 12.6 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. For these paintings, see Piero Torriti, La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena , vol. 1, I dipinti dal XII al XV secolo (Genoa, 1977), 207; Valentina Maderna, “Il polittico di Andrea di Bartolo a Brera,” in Il polittico di Andrea di Bartolo a Brera restaurato , ed. Valentina Maderna (Florence, 1986), 9 – ​15; Federico Zeri, in Federico Zeri and Elizabeth E. Gardner, Italian Paintings: Sienese and Central Italian Schools; A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1980), 1 – ​​2; and Miklós Boskovits and Serena Padovani, The Thyssen-­Bornemisza Collection: Early Italian Painting 1290 – ​​1470 (London, 1990), 16 – ​​21. In my discussion of this predella in 1990, I wrongly connected it with two lateral panels of paired saints from a dispersed triptych, now in a private collection. These panels, Saints Louis of Toulouse and John the Baptist and John the Evangelist and Francis , now seem to me relatively early works of the artist, probably datable to the first decade of the fifteenth century, whereas the predella I had placed in the period c. 1415 – ​​1420 ought to be closer in date to the latter end of this spectrum.

The closest stylistic affinities of the Gallery’s panels therefore are with works whose figures are more robust and more sedate in character. Paintings that fall into this category — ​​apart from the polyptych in Buonconvento and the altarpiece now in the museum in Murano, both datable to the last decade of the fourteenth century — ​​include the fragment with the Virgin Annunciate formerly in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the fragmentary Saint Michael Archangel in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena (no. 63), for both of which Laurence Kanter (1986) proposed a provenance from the same altarpiece of which the Gallery’s panels originally formed a part. [32]     [32] Laurence B. Kanter, “Giorgio di Andrea di Bartolo,” Arte cristiana 74 (1986): 22 – ​24. The Minneapolis fragment was deaccessioned, and its present whereabouts are unknown to me. For the fragment no. 63 in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena, cf. Piero Torriti, La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena , vol. 1, I dipinti dal XII al XV secolo (Genoa, 1977), 205. Apparently, during these years — ​​that is, the first fifteen years of the fifteenth century — ​​Andrea especially painted small-scale works for private devotion, such as the abovementioned portable triptych no. 133 in the Pinacoteca of Siena; this resembles our scenes from the life of Mary not only in the proportions and physiognomic types of the figures but also in its peculiar compositional devices. [33]     [33] The somewhat naive compositional device proposed by the painter in the Nativity of the central panel of the triptych in Siena, namely that of displacing sharply to the left the little tree in the background to avoid its branches being concealed by the cusped border of the frame, recalls the improbable displacement — ​​​for the same reason — ​​​of the dome to the left margin of the temple in Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple and Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple in the National Gallery of Art. In another triptych datable to this period, that of the Lindenau-­Museum in Altenburg, the cloak of the young female saint of the left leaf is closely comparable with that of the majestic Saint Anne of The Presentation of the Virgin to the Temple . Another comparable work  [34]     [34] We may further recall as works exemplifying Andrea’s phase at the turn of the century a portable triptych in the Brooklyn Museum in New York, no. 34. 839; see Carl Brandon Strehlke, Italian Paintings, 1250 – ​1450, in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 2004), 41, and the little panels with saints, formerly belonging to the museums in Altenburg, Oslo, Oxford, and in private collections; see Francesca Pasut, in Maestri senesi e toscani nel Lindenau – ​Museum di Altenburg , ed. Miklós Boskovits and Johannes Tripps (Siena, 2008), 107 – ​111. is the Adoration of the Magi now in the Salini collection, which recalls the Washington panels both in the statuesque pose of its figures and in the characteristics of its architectural backdrop. [35]     [35] Gold Backs: 1250 – ​1480 (Turin, 1996), 122, 124; Gabriele Fattorini, in La collezione Salini: Dipinti, sculture e oreficerie dei secoli XII, XIII, XIV e XV , ed. Luciano Bellosi, 2 vols. (Florence, 2009), 1:236 – ​249. The painting, cut on all sides, measures 25.5 × 21 cm. The fragment at first sight might also seem the companion panel of these in the Gallery, but its original size must have been slightly smaller than that of the Washington panels.

Miklós Boskovits (1935–2011)

March 21, 2016

This panel, along with NGA 1939.1.41 and 1939.1.43, are stated to have come from the collection of a contessa Giustiniani, Genoa;[1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome); sold July 1930 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] See the bill of sale described in note 2. No documented collection of the conti Giustiniani at Genoa seems to have existed, at least in the early years of the twentieth century. The works that Elisabeth Gardner ( A Bibliographical Repertory of Italian Private Collections , ed. Chiara Ceschi and Katharine Baetjer, 4 vols., Vicenza, 1998-2011: 2(2002):183) cites as formerly the property of the contessa Giustiniani almost all seem to have been purchased on the art market shortly before 1930, when Contini Bonacossi sold them to Samuel H. Kress. The contessa is thus more likely to have been a dealer, or agent, than a collector. See also Miklós Boskovits and David Alan Brown, Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century , National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington and New York, 2003: 616 n. 3.

[2] The painting is included on a bill of sale dated 15 July 1930 that included eight paintings from the Giustiniani collection (copy in NGA curatorial files); see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2260.

Associated Names

This painting, along with its companions The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple and Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple , was executed on a single-member poplar panel with vertical grain. [1]     [1] The NGA scientific research department identified the wood using optical microscopy (see report dated September 15, 1988, in NGA conservation files). The edges of the three panels probably were cropped slightly. Wooden strips measuring 0.6 – ​0.8 cm wide have been attached to the edges along all four sides of each painting. The x-radiographs X-radiography   A photographic or digital image analysis method that visually records an object's ability to absorb or transmit x-rays. The differential absorption pattern is useful for examining an object's internal structure as well as for comparing the variation in pigment types. show three round marks along the bottom of The Presentation and The Nativity , which may be the sites of old holes from nails that attached a horizontal batten.

The paintings most likely were executed on a gesso Gesso   A mixture of finely ground plaster and glue applied to wood panels to create a smooth painting surface. —Grove Art © Oxford University Press ground Ground   The layer or layers used to prepare the support to hold the paint. . The x-radiographs of The Presentation suggest the presence of a fabric interlayer beneath the ground, but such a layer is not evident in the x-radiographs of the other two paintings. Infrared reflectography Infrared Reflectography   A photographic or digital image analysis method which captures the absorption/emission characteristics of reflected infrared radiation. The absorption of infrared wavelengths varies for different pigments, so the resultant image can help distinguish the pigments that have been used in the painting or underdrawing. (Vidicon) [2]     [2] Infrared reflectography was performed using a Hamamatsu c/1000-03 Vidicon camera. proves the presence of extensive underdrawing Underdrawing   A drawing executed on a ground before paint is applied. , particularly in the draperies of the figures and the placement of the architectural forms. Incised lines were used, on the other hand, to delineate the main contours of the figures, of architectural details, and of the original frame, now lost, against the gold.

Stephen Pichetto thinned and cradled Cradling   Attaching a woodent grid to the reverse of a panel to prevent the panel's warping. the panels shortly after their acquisition by Samuel H. Kress in 1930. [3]     [3] Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings , 2 vols. (Washington, DC, 1979), 1:4. X-radiographs made prior to the attachment of the cradles show extensive worm damage, as well as structural damage in the form of a large crack in the central area of each panel. A large knot may have caused the vertical split in The Presentation . The cracks of The Presentation and The Nativity line up, if the latter is positioned above the former. However, this could be purely coincidental and may not relate to the original positions of the panels. The painted surface contains only very small losses, but all panels have been generously retouched and partially regilded. The inpainting Inpainting   Application of restoration paint to areas of lost original paint to visually integrate an area of loss with the color and pattern of the original, without covering any original paint. is disturbing, especially in the faces of the three figures at the center of The Nativity . The frames are modern. Photographs made at the time of the paintings’ donation to the National Gallery of Art show the panels unframed. A note in the Gallery’s curatorial files mentions their reframing in 1944. Before this intervention the spandrels originally covered by the frame had been regilded and appear as such in the photos published in the 1941 catalog of the Gallery. [4]     [4] Reproduced still unframed in Cesare Brandi, Quattrocentisti senesi (Milan, 1949), pl. 9; National Gallery of Art, Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection (Washington, DC, 1959), 36. However, The Presentation and The Nativity are reproduced with their modern frame in George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art , 2nd ed. (New York, 1955), pl. 21. The cusped inner molding of the present frames follows approximately the incised lines for the original framing. Pichetto removed discolored varnish and inpaint during his 1930 treatment of the paintings. In 1955 Mario Modestini again treated The Nativity and Joachim and Anna . [5]     [5] Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings , 2 vols. (Washington, DC, 1979), 1:4. Kress Foundation records (copies in NGA curatorial files) mention only that Modestini “revived color under white stains . . . ​and applied protective coat.”

• Results layout:

Click on any panel in the altarpiece reconstruction below to see an enlarged version of the image. Color reproductions in the reconstruction indicate panels in the National Gallery of Art collection.

Reconstruction of a dispersed altarpiece by Andrea di Bartolo:

a. Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple b. Expulsion of Joachim (?), lost c. Joachim Leaving Jerusalem  (Entry fig. 1) d. Annunciation of the Birth of Mary (?), lost e. Lost f. Meeting at Porta Aurea (?), lost g. The Nativity of the Virgin h. The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple i. Marriage of the Virgin (?), lost

a. Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings in the Temple

B. expulsion of joachim (), lost.

c. Joachim Leaving Jerusalem

D. annunciation of the birth of mary, lost, f. meeting at the porta aurea (), lost.

g. The Nativity of the Virgin

h. The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple

I. marriage of the virgin (), lost, associated records.

The Presentation of the Virgin (c. 1305) by Giotto

Artwork Information

About The Presentation of the Virgin

Giotto di Bondone was a Renaissance artist from Florence whose contributions to art were pivotal in the transition from medieval to Renaissance art. One of his most famous works is The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, which is part of a larger fresco cycle in the Arena Chapel in Padua. Giotto’s innovative technique introduced naturalism, spatial construction, and emotionality to his paintings.

In The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, Giotto used naturalistic elements like animals that move realistically. This reflects his groundbreaking style that brought new levels of realism and depth to representations of religious subjects. Using fresco techniques allowed him to create life-like images by working on wet plaster while it was drying, which made each work unique.

The presentation depicts an intimate moment where a young Mary is presented at the temple as part of Jewish custom. This emotionally charged scene captures moments leading up to Mary’s entry into an arranged marriage with Joseph – significant because they become parents to Jesus Christ.

Overall, Giotto’s work demonstrated that art could be both emotional and realistic. The Presentation Of The Virgin stands out for its unique combination of naturalism and emotive storytelling by exploring historic events through meaningful imagery — making it one of Giotto’s most celebrated works.

Other Artwork from Giotto

Confirmation Of The Stigmata (c. 1288-1292) by Giotto

Crucifixion (1305) by Giotto

Crucifix (c.1300) by Giotto

Slaughter of the Innocents (1305) by Giotto

Isaac Rejecting Esau (c. 1288-1292) by Giotto

Giotto biography and artwork, more artwork from artchive.

Woman on a Couch (1919) by Henri Matisse

The Kitchen Maid (c. 1620) by Diego Velazquez

Three Sisters and The Rose Marble Table (1917) by Henri Matisse

Fate and the Pleasure-Lovers by Abanindranath Tagore

The Decapitation of Saint John the Baptist (1607-08) by Caravaggio

La Villa Bleue (1918) by Henri Matisse

Flowers (c.1907) by Henri Matisse

The Idol (1906) by Henri Matisse

Das trojanische Pferd (The Trojan horse) (1924) by Lovis Corinth

Bust of Costanza Bonarelli (c. 1636-37) by Gianlorenzo Bernini

The Guardians of Reminiscence (2022) by Karnish Art

The Bronze Age (1875-76) by Auguste Rodin

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Is This the Oldest Image of the Virgin Mary?

By Michael Peppard

• Jan. 30, 2016

THE Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the most revered woman in the Christian tradition. In the history of art, she appears almost as frequently as Jesus himself. But for the past 80 years, one of the oldest paintings of her may have been hiding in plain sight.

At the Yale University Art Gallery hang wall paintings from one of the world’s oldest churches. Buried by the middle of the third century, this house-church from eastern Syria had images of Jesus, Peter and David. The gallery showcases a well-preserved procession of veiled women that once surrounded its baptistery, a room for Christian initiation.

Off to the side, seldom noticed among the likes of Jesus and Peter, stands a different wall fragment, faded but still discernible: a woman bent over a well. Holding the rope of her vessel, she looks out at the viewer or perhaps over her shoulder, seemingly startled in the act of drawing water.

Who is she? The museum’s identification is certainly plausible: “The painting most likely depicts a scene from the encounter between Christ (not shown) and a woman from Samaria,” as recorded in the Gospel of John. But historians also know that the Samaritan Woman, a repentant sinner who conversed at length with Jesus, was usually depicted in dialogue with him. This woman appears to be alone.

Is it possible that a painting from a building excavated in 1932 and publicized around the world has not been correctly identified? These murals come from the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, a military outpost variously called “Dura” or “Europos” in antiquity.

Perched high above the Euphrates in the region that is now called Deir ez-Zor, the ruins of Dura-Europos have yielded more distinct artifacts than almost any other ancient archaeological site: an intact Roman shield, a lavishly painted synagogue, a temple to the gods of nearby Palmyra. It is the “Pompeii of the Syrian desert,” declared Michael Rostovtzeff, director of Yale’s excavations at the site.

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The J. Paul Getty Museum

Visualizing the Virgin Mary

Figurative art never looked so rebellious. Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times Art Critic

The Virgin Mary is one of the most important figures in the Christian tradition. This exhibition presents illuminated manuscripts depicting myriad stories and images from the Middle Ages that celebrated Mary as a personal intercessor, a compassionate mother, and a heavenly queen. The legacy of representing Mary is also shown through the venerated image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the Americas, revealing how Mary provides different meanings for viewers across time.

This exhibition is presented in English and Spanish. Esta exhibición se presenta en inglés y en español.

SELECTED WORKS

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Publication

Illuminating Women in the Medieval World

These illuminated manuscripts reveal to us the many facets of medieval womanhood and slices of medieval life.

Exhibition Resources

Discover more about the works featured in the exhibition.

Object Checklist

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Art & Design

Mother, empress, virgin, faith: 'picturing mary' and her many meanings.

Susan Stamberg

Sandro Botticelli's Madonna and Child, painted in 1480, shows a reflective Mary in deep blue. Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan/National Museum of Women in the Arts hide caption

Sandro Botticelli's Madonna and Child, painted in 1480, shows a reflective Mary in deep blue.

This Christmas, images of the Virgin Mary created over five centuries glow on the walls of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. Mary's role as Woman, Mother and Idea is portrayed by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Rembrandt as well as other major and lesser-known artists from the 1400s through the 1900s.

"I think of Mary as being brave and strong," says chief curator Kathryn Wat. "I think sometimes people see meekness and humility. I see that, too, but under-girding all of that I see strength."

Monsignor Timothy Verdon, canon of the Florence Cathedral, is guest curator of the exhibition. "Mary is one of the main themes in Western art for more than 1,000 years," Verdon explains. "Not only are there more images of her than of anyone else — including her son — her son is often part of the image, but the interest of the image is normally more focused on Mary, who is the adult, than on the Christ child."

Curator Timothy Verdon says "Mary is unexpectedly fashionable" in Fra Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Child , painted in the 1460s. Provincia di Firenze, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence/National Museum of Women in the Arts hide caption

Curator Timothy Verdon says "Mary is unexpectedly fashionable" in Fra Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Child , painted in the 1460s.

In the 1460s, Fra Filippo Lippi of Florence saw the Madonna as regal and queenly — a kind of Byzantine empress. "Mary is unexpectedly fashionable," Verdon describes, "in a splendid crimson underdress and a rich mantel and — my goodness — pearls adorning the hem of her diaphanous veil — a kind of very delicate fabric [that] was immediately recognized at the period as a luxury fabric."

Her filigreed halo is made of gold and her face is serene. But there's a sadness there — a premonition that the big-bellied baby she hugs will meet suffering and death.

"This — and other similar works in which we feel that aura of sadness — were made in an age when one of the most common facts in society was infant mortality," Verdon says. "So for people to see the Madonna and the child veiled with this premonition of suffering really fit into a very important part of their lives."

Sandro Botticelli's Madonna, from 1480, is also reflective — and exquisite, in her deep blue robe and delicate golden halo. A century later, in 1570, Federico Barocci's Mary is very human. She's picnicking on the flight into Egypt. Her head is bare (she's put her straw hat on the ground), she's barefoot, and as her baby reaches happily for some cherries Joseph offers, Mary is catching stream water into a silver bowl.

Federico Barocci's 1570 Rest on the Flight into Egypt shows Mary catching water in a silver bowl as Joseph offers cherries to Jesus. Vatican Museums,/National Museum of Women in the Arts hide caption

Federico Barocci's 1570 Rest on the Flight into Egypt shows Mary catching water in a silver bowl as Joseph offers cherries to Jesus.

"This becomes a wonderful symbol of what womanhood and especially motherhood is — it's a source of life for the families," Verdon says. "It's a wonderfully simple, charming, [but] at the same time, deep picture."

Another bare-headed Mary, chalked in red by Michelangelo around 1525, shows her as powerful. "Not only is her head uncovered, her arms are uncovered, and it looks as if she spends all her time at the gym," Verdon says.

She has muscles — which Verdon says symbolized the strength of human desire for God. Each work in this "Picturing Mary" exhibition is layered with meaning. A bowl of fruit symbolizes fecundity. A closed book moves God's word to her womb. A thorn bracelet foreshadows Jesus' agony on the cross.

In the 17th century, Artemisia Gentileschi broke from traditions that kept women painting still lifes and portraits, to show a theological topic in a way no man had done — Mary nursing her child.

Female artists portrayed Mary in a very different light — above, Artemisia Gentileschi's 1609 oil on canvas, Madonna and Child. Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence/National Museum of Women in the Arts hide caption

Female artists portrayed Mary in a very different light — above, Artemisia Gentileschi's 1609 oil on canvas, Madonna and Child.

"The idea here is that it's quite forthright," says Wat. "She's revealed her breast, the baby's getting ready to nurse. .... It's very frank, and this is not the way male artists typically treated the subject. They were a little more roundabout, and things were sort of more unnatural-looking or shaded somehow with fabric, or the position was a little different. This is just all right there."

Gentileschi's Mary is monumental — she fills the canvas. An earthy, natural woman, she holds her breast to her eager child with no trace of false modesty or shame.

Society — and the church — wanted different Marys as the centuries passed, and artists reflected those shifts. By 1884, Nicolò Barabino designed a mural with the basic Marian elements: blue robe, halo, book of God's words. But her face is veiled, and there's no baby. Here she's become an abstract idea rather than a specific mother or queen or virgin — this is a work about faith.

Nicolò Barabino's 1884 mural Faith with Representations of the Arts shows a more abstract understanding of Mary. Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence/National Museum of Women in the Arts hide caption

"So faith suddenly is impersonated by Mary," Verdon says. "Mary becomes the most emblematic figure of what it means to be a believer." He believes this shift in emphasis is the 1880s version of keeping up with the times. "The world had already become much less Christian than it had [been] in earlier periods," he explains. "The church, knowing that, looks for a neutral and almost philosophical language in which to re-propose some of the traditional beliefs. Since everyone would agree that faith — which may not necessarily be religious faith; it could be political faith, it could be a faith in ethical principles — that faith is a good thing."

Faith, belief, worship, holiness, mother of God — the Blessed Mother means many different things to Christians around the globe.

Standing amid the 60 artworks, many of them masterpieces, I ask curator Timothy Verdon who Mary is to him. He answers: "She's my mother."

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What made this representation of the Virgin Mary revolutionary

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This representation of the Virgin Mary revolutionary because the maddona has a surprisingly human appearance. It was done by Giotto di Bondone, an Italian painter, and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages and is generally considered to be in the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance. The representation of the Virgin Mary is used as the “mother of God,” who stands with the suffering, oppressed, and discriminated. Leaders of popular rebellions and wars of independence often used images of Virgin Mary to help legitimize their revolutionary actions.

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The Madonna has a surprisingly human appearance.

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Gothic Art and Architecture

Summary of Gothic Art and Architecture

With soaring vaults and resplendent stained glass windows, Gothic architecture attempted to recreate a heavenly environment on earth. Elaborating on Romanesque styles, Gothic builders, beginning in the 12 th century, further developed the use of flying buttresses and decorative tracery between stained glass windows thus creating interior spaces that dwarfed worshippers and dazzled their senses. Additionally, in response to a new interest in humanism (manifested later and powerfully in Renaissance Humanism ), architectural and portable sculpture primarily depicted figures that acquired more naturalistic and sensuous features than had previously existed in the Middle Ages. Wealthy noblemen commissioned sumptuous manuscript illuminations, and toward the end of the Gothic era in the 14 th century, elaborate altarpieces and frescoes became more common in churches and chapels. Renaissance artists and writers in the 16 th century coined the term Gothic, and the early art historian Giorgio Vasari infamously reinforced the unfavorable connotations when he referred to Gothic art as “monstrous and barbaric” since it did not conform to classical ideals. It was not until the mid-1700s with the Gothic Revival in England that the style shed its negative associations. Subsequently Gothic architecture in particular inspired new churches in the 19 th century, city buildings, and university architecture well into the 20 th century.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

• The innovations of Gothic architecture were premised on the ideas developed by Abbot Suger that earthly light contained divine light and that the physical edifice of the church needed to make this concept tangible. Revolutionary transformations of flying buttresses and groin vaulting allowed the inclusion of more stained glass windows in the church’s structure, thus transforming the everyday sunlight into a prism of colors that danced over the surfaces of the stone and reminded worshippers of God’s divine presence.
• A renewed interest in humanism, which had a slightly different cast than the later humanism of the Renaissance , led to more naturalistic figurative sculpture that decorated the exterior of the churches and housed sacred relics, which were increasingly important to a city’s reputation. In particular, representations of the Virgin Mary and Christ child move away from massive frontal poses to more typical, or everyday, poses that register the tender human emotion one often sees between mother and child.
• Combining aspects of Byzantine and Romanesque styles and even borrowing from Islamic architecture, Gothic art and architecture revel in its eclectic roots, growing and morphing to suit regional tastes and tendencies. By the end of the Middle Ages, the Gothic style had become “international” in its spread across Europe, and its emphasis on naturalism sparked the revolution in painting that flourished during the Renaissance even if its architecture was replaced with straighter lines and classical proportions.

Artworks and Artists of Gothic Art and Architecture

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres

Called “the high point of French Gothic art” by UNESCO, which designated Chartres cathedral a World Heritage Site, two spires dominate the Western façade; the spire on the right was completed about 1160, while the one on the left combines the original, lower tower with a spire in the Flamboyant style from the early 1500s. Together, the two towers create a dynamic vertical movement, echoed by the pointed arches of the openings and the three protruding columns ascending most of the length of the towers. The cathedral is harmoniously composed of thirds, reflecting the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit); the three horizontal levels of the façade are clearly delineated, and three windows above the entrance echo the three portals. As a result, the cathedral powerfully conveys a sense of earthly power that is both grounded and soars upward. The cathedral, situated on the tallest hill in the city of Chartres, dominates the view of the city, reflecting its importance not only as the center of religious life but also as a hub of economic and social life in its functions as a market place and a site for local fairs and festivals. As earlier buildings were destroyed in fires, the cathedral is the fifth church to be built on the site, a noted place of pilgrimage that was believed to house the Sancta Camisa, a garment that the Virgin Mary wore when she gave birth to Christ. The rebuilding of this final cathedral that began in 1194, occurred in a relatively short period of time, and, as a result, the building has a remarkably cohesive style. Its innovations, including flying buttresses, three rose windows, many smaller stained glass windows, and the sculptural carvings around the portals, came to exemplify the Gothic style. Importantly, it has retained almost all of its original stained glass, a rarity for many churches. As the noted French author Victor Hugo wrote in the 1800s, cathedrals like Chartres belonged to “poetry and the people.”

Stone, stained glass - Chartres, France

Bamberger Reiter

This stone sculpture known as the Bamberg Rider depicts a crowned but unarmed man, seated on a horse, turning to look at the viewer. A convincing naturalism, portraying the subject with realistic proportions and details, pervades the life-sized work, as the horse holds its head with the bit in its teeth, and its left, rear leg flexes as if restless. The man’s fashionable curls and dress indicate an aristocratic background, and his figure conveys a confident calmness as he surveys the distance, while tugging on a strap to draw his cloak around his shoulders. Scholars have debated the identity of the man, believing he may be a specific king known for saintly qualities, and several candidates have been suggested, from Saint Stephen I of Hungary to Emperor Henry II or Emperor Frederick II. Other scholars have argued that the figure may be Christ as depicted in the Book of Revelation, and the city rendered in stone framing the rider’s head as symbolic of heavenly Jerusalem. Originally the work was painted, though only traces remain. The horse’s front hooves are resting on a depiction of the Green Man, carved into the base’s Acanthus corbel. A figure of pagan mythology, the Green Man or Wild Man was associated with fertility and here suggests the Christ-like horseman’s demonic but conquered counterpart. The overall effect of the work is of calm authority, as if the worshipper would be reminded of Christ the King and his promised reign as well as the Christ-like authority believed to be embodied in rulers. As art historian Shirin Fozi notes, “His calm gaze seems to suggest that, despite the realities of shifting ethnic identities and complex national boundaries, medieval Europe could still dream of a world united under the paradigm of a perfect Christian king.” The life-sized work was remarkably innovative, being the first monumental equestrian statue since Roman times. The work has had a long cultural life in Germany, as the image was often displayed in public buildings, schools, and private homes. The mystery of the horseman’s identity enabled the work to become an often-evoked symbol, the meaning of the figure interpreted according to the cultural and political environment.

Stone - Bamberg Cathedral, Bamberg, Germany

Annunciation and Visitation

This group of four figures found on the west portal of Reims Cathedral depicts the Annunciation and the Visitation of the Virgin Mary. The pair on the left depicts the smiling archangel Gabriel turning toward the Virgin Mary to tell her she will bear the son of God; Mary, who looks pensively downward, turns slightly toward the angel as if quietly listening. The Visitation, on the right, includes Mary, pregnant with Jesus, and her older cousin St. Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist. Each of the figures conveys a sense of movement, as if they were engaged in conversation, their faces conveying subtle emotion, their draperies flowing realistically around them, and a touch of contrapposto can be seen, particularly in Elizabeth’s bent right knee. The innovative figures are no longer emerging from pillars, as they were in the Romanesque and Early Gothic styles, but are fully realized sculptures, three-dimensional as if standing in front of the column-lined church. Because the work is anonymous like most Gothic era work, it’s not known if the same sculptor made all four figures, but the slender gracefulness of the two on the left compared with the more realistic depictions of the two on the right suggest that two different artists might be responsible. For worshippers of the day, they were convincingly life-like depictions of sacred figures, but as works of art the sculptures exemplify the High Gothic style while pointing the way to the later International Gothic style and the Renaissance.

Stone - Notre-Dame de Reims, Reims, France

North Rose Window at Notre Dame Cathedral of Chartres

This iconic rose window, resplendent with rich color that makes it a masterwork of Gothic stained glass, depicts the Madonna and Child at its center. They are surrounded by twelve panels, radiating like the petals of a flower and depicting doves representing the gifts of the spirit and angels holding candles. In the next ring, 12 square windows placed at various angles show the Old Testament Kings of Judah, while small quatrefoils bear the fleur-de-lis , the symbol of France. The outer ring’s half circles show the Old Testament prophets, while just below the rose window, four lancet windows on either side carry the insignia of the kingdoms of France in blue and gold and of Castile in red and gold, noting the window’s patron, Queen Blanche of Castile. Five lancet windows below depict King Melchizedek, King David, the Virgin Mary as a child being held by St. Anne, her mother, in the center, and King Solomon and the high priest Aaron. These figures are portrayed as standing upon a defeated enemy; for instance, a vignette below King David’s feet depicts King Saul committing suicide. As most worshippers were illiterate, stained glass windows played a didactic role, illustrating stories of the Bible and conveying moral meaning. Iconography played an important role in designing such windows, as the number 12, repeated here, symbolized the unity of the trinity times the number 4 representing mankind. The colors, too, were significant, as blue symbolized the Virgin Mary, whereas red symbolized the suffering and passion of Christ. Many of the church’s 176 windows used predominantly this distinctive shade of blue, named the “bleu de Chartres.” The rose was considered to be a symbol of perfect love as well as the “eye of God,” announcing God’s illuminating presence among men. The light, ever changing, radiated through the depths of the cathedral, creating an inspiring otherworldly effect, while the image reflected the sustaining presence of the Virgin Mary as comforting mother to Catholic worshippers of the era. The windows of Chartres influenced the development of the Rayonnant style, which emphasized the rose window’s radial effect, exaggerating the petal-like shapes radiating from its center into “rays” of colored glass. The church has remained a continuing presence in the cultural imagination, as seen in filmmaker Orson Welles’ description in his film F for Fake (1973) as “this one anonymous glory of all things, this rich stone forest.” UNESCO described the cathedral as “a museum to stained glass.”

Stained glass - Chartres, France

Maestà di Santa Trinita

Artist: Cimabue

Cimabue depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned in Heaven, seated upon an intricate gold throne that also suggests the architecture of Heaven, with its tower-like pillars. The two are flanked by angels, arranged symmetrically on either side, their hands holding the towers as if supporting them, while the faces of the first pair turn to the side, and the others above them turn toward the Virgin. Their wings create an overlapping pattern of color gradations illuminated by gold that both encloses and emphasizes the Madonna while leading the eye upward to her gaze at the apex of the triangle. Below, four prophets look out through a trio of arches, conveying the authority of tradition. Cimabue’s innovations included moving painting away from Byzantine flat depictions and stylized figures, favoring instead more realistic proportions and shading, as seen in the naturalistic drapery of the Virgin’s clothing and the placement of her feet suggesting movement. A more naturalistic treatment of space is also evident, as seen in the two lower angels, whose placement shows that they are clearly standing behind the towers before them, as their figures take on an aspect of three-dimensionality. A noted teacher, Cimabue trained Pacino di Bonaguida and was said to have discovered Giotto. As art critic John Haber wrote of Cimabue, “In his grand, multi-tiered architecture and spare, wiry human forms, he could serve as the culmination of past ages or the beginning of the new.”

Tempera and gold foil on panel - Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ)

Artist: Giotto

This Late Gothic fresco depicts the mourning of Christ, as he is cradled by his mother who looks closely into his face, while Mary Magdalene holds his feet, and other shrouded mourners surround him. To the right, two apostles stand beside a stone wall that creates a diagonal that separates the human scene from the blue sky, where a multitude of angels flies, their wings and postures conveying divine distress. Other disciples stand at the left, one bending forward, the other with his face in his hands. Giotto’s masterful composition keeps the viewer focused on the dead Christ’s face and the interaction between him and Mary while at the same time creating a radical sense of space in a rather shallow setting. Giotto depicts two disciples in the foreground with their backs to the viewer, and the central figures to the right with bent backs rise to the disciple who flings his arms behind him in a state of grief. He points to the group of mourners on the other side, unifying the crowd. The circular group of people emphasizes Christ’s horizontal body, and the radically foreshortened angels in the sky echo the earthly circular formation below. The artist’s treatment of human emotion is realistic and powerful, as body language and facial expression convey both the outcry of anguish and the stolid presence of grief. This innovative sense of composition and a sculptural approach to the human figure, conveying gravity and weight, made Giotto’s work both the pinnacle of Late Gothic work and an important influence upon the Renaissance. The very wealthy Enrico Scrovegni commissioned the fresco cycle in the Padua chapel to be his funerary monument and penance for his father’s usury, a sin in the Catholic church at the time. Giotto was thus funded and painted 37 scenes, arranged in three tiers, depicting the narrative of Christ’s life and the life of the Virgin, along with interspersed quatrefoil images of the Old Testament. Giovanni Villani, a chronicler of Giotto’s era, wrote that the artist was "the most sovereign master of painting in his time, who drew all his figures and their postures according to nature,” and in the 1500s Vasari described the artist as being a forerunner of the Renaissance, “introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years.”

Fresco - Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padua, Italy

Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus

Artist: Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi

The central panel depicts the Annunciation, when archangel Gabriel, carrying an olive branch, kneels before Mary, darkly robed on the right, and informs her that she will give birth to the son of God. Between them, a vase containing lilies, symbolizing purity, sits on the floor, while above in the central arch, a group of angels appears, their wings interlocking in a mandorla. The words “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee” in Latin are embossed in gold, extending diagonally from the angel’s open lips toward Mary. Exquisite detailing, as seen in the angels’ wings and the decorative motif of the chair where Mary sits, give the work a sense of precise and elegant refinement. The central panel is considered one of Martini’s masterworks, showing his innovative use of line combined with a sense of movement and human expression. The angel’s gown flares behind him as if he has just landed, and the Virgin seems to recoil, her face disbelieving at his announcement. Though the setting, employing extensive gold, and subject reflect Byzantine tradition, the portrayal of the Annunciation as a dramatic moment was unique in its time. The prodigious use of gold leaf, lapis lazuli, and expensive lacquer, indicate the high status of this altarpiece, commissioned by the Cathedral of Siena, and dedicated to the city’s patron saints. Some scholars credit Lippo Memmi with the depiction of St. Margaret, on the far right, though other scholars also attribute to him the portrayals of St. Ansanus on the left and the prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Daniel, in the tondos, or circular paintings. However, Memmi’s depictions lack the sophistication of Martini’s approach.

Tempera and gold leaf on wood - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Italy

David and a prophet from the Well of Moses

Artist: Claus Sluter

In this view of the hexagonally shaped Well of Moses , one sees two of the six figures that surround the monumental edifice. The biblical King David, holding a scroll in his left hand, is visible at the left, while the Prophet Jeremiah, holding up a large book from which a scroll unfurls, is pictured on the right. Standing atop thin columns between the human figures, three angels are partially visible, their flaring wings creating the fount of the well. The fount was meant to convey not only the Well of Moses in Egypt but also the living water of the Christian faith, symbolized in baptism. A kind of sacred history is conveyed in the gathering of these figures, each connected to the word of God through the scrolls that he holds. With its naturalistic human figures, powerfully conveying physical presence and individualized expressions, while denoting courtly elegance in the flowing rhythm of draperies and scrolls, this work innovatively exemplified the International Gothic Style. The Carthusian Monastery in Dijon commissioned the work from the artist who was the court artist for Phillip the Bold of Burgundy. The original structure was more complex, as the center of the well included a pier, carved with prophets and angels, and a cross rising from the depths to tower over the well, but only the well itself has survived. Originally the sculpture was painted and gilded by Jean Malouel, traces of which are visible in the blue bands of David’s robe and Jeremiah’s green sleeve, which would have created a more animated and lively effect. The sculptor has conveyed his subjects’ importance while also depicting their different personalities: David’s sense of strong but relaxed authority and Jeremiah’s pensiveness. Sluter’s innovative three-dimensional and emotionally expressive figures had a noted influence upon Northern European Renaissance artists, including Rogier Van der Weyden, Matthias Grünewald, and Albrecht Dürer.

Stone, paint and gilding - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, Dijon, France

Beginnings of Gothic Art and Architecture

The gothic era.

City-states and feudal kingdoms dotted Europe, and the power of the Catholic church continued to grow during the Gothic era. With increasing prosperity and more stable governments, cultural changes included the early formations of universities, like the University of Paris in 1150, and the proliferation of Catholic orders, like the Franciscan and Dominicans. The monks and theologians ushered in a new Humanism that sought to reconcile Platonic ideals and Church theology. The humanism at this time saw man as part of a complex hierarchy, divinely ordered by God whose ultimate nature surpassed reason.

Increasing trade led to the growth of many urban centers, and the local Cathedral became a sign of civic pride. At the same time, noble patronage began to play a primary role in building projects, as stained glass windows and portals emphasized the identification of the king as a kind of earthly representation of divine authority, as seen in the “royal portal” reserved for nobility and high ranking church officials. Some Gothic churches took decades to build, contributing both to the economy of the town and to the expansion of the necessary guilds that represented the various trades involved in construction and design. Most of the Early Gothic architects, sculptors, and designers of stained glass windows were anonymous, and it is only later in the High Gothic period that architects and artists known as “masters” became identified.

The architecture that informed the Gothic period drew upon a number of influences, including Romanesque, Byzantine, and Middle Eastern.

Romanesque churches from the 10th to the 12 th centuries are noted for their use of barrel vaults, rounded arches, towers, and their thick walls, pillars and piers. Housing the relics of saints, the churches were part of the pilgrimage routes that extended throughout Europe, as the faithful visited the holy sites to seek forgiveness for their sins and attain the promise of Heaven.

Gothic architecture retained the Romanesque western façade as the entrance to the church with its two towers, three portals and sculptural works in the tympanum, a half circle area above the door, as well as its cruciform plan. While Gothic churches continued the religious tradition of the pilgrimage path, their new style reflected a new economic and political reality.

The Pointed Arch and Middle Eastern Architecture

The pointed arch was a noted element of Middle Eastern architecture beginning in the 7 th century, as seen in the Al-Aqsa Mosque (780) in Jerusalem. Widely deployed in the building of mosques and palaces like the fortress of Al-Ukhaidir (775), the pointed arch was found throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Andalucia (modern day Spain), and Sicily. As architectural critic Jonathan Meades wrote, these early examples “would in the 12 th century become the quintessential architecture of Christendom.” As the Pope and Catholic rulers sought to extend the range of Christianity in the Middle Ages through the Crusades, knowledge of Middle Eastern architecture became more common among Europeans.

The pointed arch made the Gothic style possible, as it could be used for asymmetrical spaces and to intersect columns at a sharp angle thus displacing the weight into the columns and lightening the walls. The structure also became key to a number of subsequent Gothic innovations, including the lancet arch, creating a high, narrow, and steeply pointed opening; the equilateral arch, widening the arch to allow for more circular forms in stained glass; and the flamboyant arch, primarily used in windows and traceries for decorative effect.

Flying Buttresses and Byzantine Architecture

The flying buttress was used in a few important and influential Byzantine structures. The buttress employed a massive column or pier, situated away from the building’s wall, and a “flyer,” an arch that, extending from the wall to the pier, displaced the weight-bearing load from the wall. The Basilica of San Vitale (547) in Ravenna, Italy, pioneered an early use of the flying buttress. The Basilica was famous for its mosaics and was a powerful symbol of the Byzantine Empire and the Roman Empire before it. As a result, it became a model for later architecture. The Emperor Charlemagne, who established the Holy Roman Empire in 799 and was dubbed “the father of Europe,” designed his Palatine Chapel in Aachen, Germany, after the Basilica of San Vitale.

Early Gothic: Basilica of Saint-Denis (1144)

The Basilica of Saint-Denis (1135-1144), near Paris, pioneered the Gothic style. Abbot Suger led the rebuilding of the church, a venerated site where Saint Denis was martyred and where almost every French monarch since the 7 th century had been buried. A noted scholar, friend, and advisor to King Louis VI and then Louis VII, Suger was influenced by the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Aeropagite, a 5 th -6 th century Christian philosopher and mystic. Pseudo-Dionysius believed that any aspect of earthly light was an aspect of divine light, a belief with which Suger concurred. Suger felt that the new Gothic style would lift up the soul to God. His design envisioned a soaring verticality, and key to this was the use of the pointed arch that allowed for a vaulted ceiling and thinner walls that could contain numerous stained glass windows. The Church of Saint-Denis became the model for the Gothic style of architecture, spreading throughout Europe.

Following on and expanding the Romanesque practice, Early Gothic churches also employed sculpture to decorate the building. Religious scenes were carved into the tympanum over the doorways, and the surrounding archivolts and lintels were filled with figures. Secular images were also created, as the Basilica of St. Denis had the signs of the zodiac carved into the sides of the left portal and scenes depicting the agricultural labors of the month on the right. Most noted were the various column statues, depicting Old Testament Kings and Prophets on the portal columns.

High Gothic (1200-80)

Beginning around 1200, the High Gothic period developed toward ever-greater verticality by including pinnacles, spires, and emphasizing both the structural and decorative effect of flying buttresses. The rose window was expanded in size, and the tracery, the intervening metal bars between sections of stained glass, was elaborated for decorative effect. Chartres Cathedral (1194-1420), Amiens Cathedral (1220-1269), and Notre Dame de Paris (1163-1345) were all notable examples of High Gothic. The High Gothic period was also marked by the development of two distinct sub styles: the Rayonnant and the Flamboyant. Most Late Gothic architecture employed the Flamboyant Style, which continued into the 1500s.

High Gothic churches continued to use sculptures, particularly around the portals, but figurative treatments became more naturalistic, as the figures stepped free of the columns that once contained them. Smaller, portable sculptures, like The Virgin and Child from the Sainte-Chappelle (c. 1260-1270), became popular. The small work, though elegant and stylized, is naturalistically sculpted, depicting the s-curve of movement and the realistic flow of draperies.

International Gothic

The International Gothic style is the term used for the courtly decorative style of illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, painting, and sculpture that developed around 1375. The style, associated with European courts, has also been called “the beautiful style,” for its emphasis on elegance, delicate detail, soft facial expressions, and smooth forms. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV in Prague, the Valois King of France, and the Visconti of Milan were the most important patrons and competed with each other to create a cultural capital that would attract leading artists. The portability of many of the works created, as well as the system of patronage that led artists to travel to different courts, spread the style’s influence throughout Europe.

Gothic Art and Architecture: Concepts, Styles, and Trends

The most important developments in later Gothic architecture were the Rayonnant Style followed by the Flamboyant Style. In painting, the most significant singular style was that of the Italian Sienese School, and the illuminated manuscript painting of the International Gothic Style.

Rayonnant Style (1240-1350)

Rayonnant is a term used to describe the style of French High Gothic architecture. Architects began to emphasize repetitive decorative motifs, a smaller, more human-scaled building, and a plethora of stained glass. The radiating “rays” of light that streamed through the glass gave the movement its name. Gothic architect Hugues Libergier first began developing the style in the Abbey church of Saint Nicaise in Reims, France around 1231. Little is known about the architect, except his name and that after his death in 1263 he was buried in the church where his tombstone honored him as a master of architecture. His innovations included a façade that used point gables and emphasized tracery, the molding between small sections of color glass, to create a kind of screen-like effect.

A famous early example of the Rayonnant style was Sainte-Chappelle (1242-1248) in Paris. Commissioned by the French King Louis IX to hold his numerous holy relics, most notably the Crown of Thorns, the chapel was also a symbol of royal prestige. Its fifteen large windows created a sense of soaring verticality and lightness, as wall space was almost eliminated and replaced by resplendent images and thin golden ribs. Designed by Pierre de Montreuil, who was dubbed “the Master of Sainte-Chappelle,” the chapel became the model for similar royal chapels throughout France and Europe. Louis IX played a noted role in promoting the style, which was employed in various noted cathedrals including Bernard de Soissons’ design of Reims Cathedral (c. 1250), the Church of St. Urbain (1262-1286) in Troyes, France, as well as the high choir of Cologne Cathedral in Germany, which was begun in 1248.

As was characteristic in the Gothic era, the Rayonnant style took on regional variations. In England, the style was called the English Decorated Style and emphasized window tracery, as stained glass windows were subdivided into many small parallel panels, and then at the top of the arch broke into curving and branching trefoil and quatrefoil shapes.

Flamboyant Style (1350-1550)

The French Flamboyant style, developing from the Rayonnant style, emphasized even greater decorative effects by employing more curved shapes. The name comes from the French word “flambé” meaning flame, as the curving ornate lines of edifices were thought to resemble flames. The overall effect was a dynamic and exuberant movement. It’s thought by some scholars that the intricate patterns and motifs from illuminated manuscripts were a noted influence.

Amboise Havel’s design for the western façade of the Church of St. Maclou (1436-1521) in Rouen, France, was a noted example of the style employed in religious architecture; however, it was also used for royal commissions, like Guy de Dammartin’s design for the Palace of the Duc de Berry, Poitiers (1386), and other private residences like the Hôtel de Cluny, Paris (1485-98). In England, the style was known as the Perpendicular Style, where it was championed by William Ramsey and John Sponlee, the royal architects, and in Germany the style was known as Sondergotik , or special Gothic.

The Sienese School (1250-1500)

The Sienese School, influenced by the developing interest in Humanist ideals among Franciscan and Dominican friars, was the primary force in developing an innovative style of Gothic painting. Coppo di Marcovaldo and Guido da Siena started the School around 1250, though the most noted early leader of the school was Duccio di Buoninsegna, known commonly as Duccio. Dubbed “the father of Sienese painting,” he combined Byzantine gold backgrounds and religious iconography with a new interest in modeling the human form. Painted primarily in tempera on wood, his works included delicate details, elements of human emotion, and architectural settings, while also conveying an elegant otherworldly effect, as seen in his Rucellai Madonna (1285). A noted teacher, Duccio trained and influenced Simone Martini, the subsequent leading painter of the Sienese School, as well as the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Martini’s works, employing an elegant sense of line and refined decorative effect, as seen in his Maestà (1315), influenced the International Gothic Style.

Illuminated Manuscripts

Illuminated manuscripts, combining religious texts with painted illustrations, became a noted feature of the International Gothic style, centered around the University of Paris. Influenced by Simone Martini of the Sienese School and by Giotto and Duccio’s work that he had encountered on a trip to Italy, Jean Pucelle’s Belleville Breviary (1326) and his acclaimed Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux (1324-28) exemplified the style. Pucelle’s naturalistic treatment included three-dimensional space, sculptural modeling of the human figure, and precisely observed details.

The royal courts in Bourges and Paris commissioned many small prayer books, called Books of Hours. Though centered in France, many of the artists were from the Netherlands, where they had been trained in the painting of miniatures, and included Jacquemart de Hesdin, Jean Pucelle, the artist known as “The Bourcicaut Master,” and the Limbourg brothers. The Limbourg brothers’ Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1412-1416) became the most famous masterpiece of the International Gothic style. A vivid color palette and realistic scenes of ordinary life marked the Tres Riches Heures , celebrating secular life as much as fulfilling a religious purpose.

Later Developments - After Gothic Art and Architecture

The Gothic era in general ended with the rise of the Renaissance, but its end was not uniform, as architecture continued to occasionally use the style, as seen in King Henry VII’s Chapel, built in the early 1500s, and the Gothic Basilica of San Patronino in Bologna, Italy, completed in 1658. In painting, the works of Giotto had a noted influence on both Italian Renaissance painters, including Masaccio and Michelangelo, and Northern European illuminated manuscripts and printmaking. Sculptors like Claus Sluter influenced artists of the Northern European Renaissance including Roger Van der Weyden and Albrecht Dürer .

During the Romantic era, artists began to value the medieval arts and picturesque ruins, and the Gothic style saw a revival. Known as the Neo-Gothic , the revival began in England in the mid-1700s, and Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill House (1749) near London is a noted early example. The style spread throughout England and its colonies, as well as the United States. As art historian Kenneth Clark wrote of the Gothic Revival, “It changed the face of England, building and restoring churches all over the countryside, and filling our towns with Gothic banks and grocers, Gothic lodging houses and insurance companies, Gothic everything from a town hall to a slum public house.” Subsequently, Gothic art and architecture influenced both the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Arts and Crafts movement , as medieval values and craftsmanship were seen as a positive antidote to the industrialism of the 1800s. The ideas of noted architect A.W. N. Pugin, who designed the interior of Westminster Palace (1840-1876) and the art critic John Ruskin made the Gothic Revival style dominant in the Victorian era.

In France, the government commissioned the noted architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to evaluate the condition of pre-existent Gothic buildings, which led to his restoring and also completing a number of French Gothic cathedrals in the 1840s. New churches in the Neo-Gothic style were also built like Saint Clotilde Basilica (1857) in Paris.

Ever since the Gothic Revival, contemporary architecture continues to draw upon the Gothic style, as elements of the design are incorporated into modern buildings or their renovations, as in the Hof van Busleyden (2013), the Market Hall in Ghent (2011-2012), both in Belgium, and Drents Archief (2010-2012) in The Netherlands.

Useful Resources on Gothic Art and Architecture

• Illuminated Manuscripts. Les Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry. 15th-Century Manuscript Translated by David Macrae / Edited by Edmond Pognon
• Gothic: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting Our Pick By Rolf Roman and Achim Bednorz
• Gothic: Visual Art of the Middle Ages 1140-1500 By Bruno Klein, Rolf Tomam, and Achim Bednorz
• Giotto By Francesca Flores d’Arcais
• Claus Sluter: Artist at the Court of Burgundy By Kathleen Morand and David Finn
• Gothic Sculpture, 1140-1300 (The Yale University Press Pelican History of Art Series) By Paul Williamson
• Art review: A flowering in Florence is captured at the Getty By Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times / November 13, 2012
• Everyone’s Talking about Giotto By Bryan C. Keene / The Getty Iris / October 15, 2012
• Gothic buildings: pillars of faith Our Pick By Jonathan Meades / The Guardian / September 10, 2011
• How they built Chartres cathedral By Thomas Marks / The Telegraph / May 3, 2008

Similar Art

Christ Pantocrator (6th century)

Duomo di Pisa (1063-1092)

The Ghent Altarpiece (1432)

Related artists.

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Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Valerie Hellstein

The patriotic Virgin: How Mary’s been marshaled for religious nationalism and military campaigns

President, Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Disclosure statement

Dorian Llywelyn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Ever since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, analysts picking apart Vladimir Putin’s motives and messaging about the war have looked to religion for some of the answers. Putin’s nationalist vision paints Russia as a defender of traditional Christian values against a liberal, secular West.

Putin’s Russia, however, is only the latest in a centurieslong lineup of nations using religion to bolster their political ambitions. As a Jesuit priest and scholar of Catholicism , I’ve seen in my research on nationalism and religion how patriotic loyalties and religious faith easily borrow one another’s language, symbols and emotions .

Western Christianity, including Catholicism, has often been enlisted to stir up patriotic fervor in support of nationalism. Historically, one typical aspect of the Catholic approach is linking devotion to the Virgin Mary with the interests of the state and military.

The birth of a belief

An Egyptian papyrus fragment from the fourth century is the first clear evidence of Christians’ praying to the Virgin Mary . The brief prayer, which seeks Mary’s protection in times of trouble, is written in the first person plural – using language like “our” and “we” – which suggests a belief that Mary would respond to groups of people as well as individuals.

That conviction appeared to grow in the following centuries. After the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in A.D. 312, the new faith developed a close relationship with his empire, including a belief that Mary looked with particular favor on the capital city of Constantinople .

Political and religious leaders asked the Virgin for victory in battle and shelter from plagues . In A.D. 626, Constantinople was besieged by a Persian navy. Christians believed that their prayers to the Virgin destroyed the invading fleet, saving the city and its inhabitants. The Akathist hymn, which has been prayed in both the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches ever since, gives Mary the military title “Champion General” in thanks for that victory .

In the Catholic West, military successes such as European victories over the Ottoman Empire were attributed to Mary’s intervention. Her blessing has been sought on imperialist endeavors , including Spain’s conquest of the Americas .

Even today, Mary holds the title of general in the armies of Argentina and Chile , where she is considered a national patroness . The same association between Marian devotion and patriotism can be found in many Latin American countries .

National symbol

Off the battlefield, many Catholic cultures have historically felt they had a special relationship with Mary. In 1638, King Louis XIII formally dedicated France to the Virgin Mary. Popular belief interpreted the subsequent birth of the future Louis XIV as Mary’s miraculous reward, after 23 years of waiting for a male heir.

About two decades later, Polish King Jan II Kazimierz consecrated his country to Mary amid a war. Both acts reflected church and political leaders’ beliefs that their countries had a sacred mission and divine approval for their political ambitions.

When these kinds of beliefs become widespread in a society, many scholars would label them religious nationalism – though there is a long-standing debate about when affection for one’s country becomes “ nationalism .” There is widespread consensus, though, that religion is one of the most common elements of nationalism , and many nationalist projects have invoked Mary’s blessing .

Polish territory, for example, was divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria for more than a century. But Polish Catholics continued to address Mary as “ Queen of Poland .” Her title asserted the existence of the Polish people as a nation. And it implied that efforts to reestablish Poland as a sovereign country had a heavenly helper.

Similarly, in the 19th century, both Queen Victoria and the Virgin Mary were referred to in different contexts as “Queen of Ireland,” expressing two rival visions of Ireland: part of the Protestant United Kingdom, or a separate and essentially Catholic country.

Many different movements have used the figure of the Virgin to support their agendas. In colonial Mexico, the figure of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one title for Mary, was originally interpreted as being a champion of the “criollos ,” native-born inhabitants of Spanish descent. During the 1810-21 War of Mexican Independence, “ la Guadalupana ” figured on the banners of the “independista” forces. The Spanish army, meanwhile, adopted the “Virgin of Los Remedios,” another title for Mary, as their own patroness. She would later be invoked in support of Indigenous people and mestizos, people with both Indigenous and Spanish ancestry .

Mary is invoked not only by nationalist causes. Sometimes she is inspiration for countercultural or protest movements, from the pro-life cause to Latina feminists . Labor leader Cesar Chavez placed the image of Guadalupe on banners as his organization marched for farmworkers’ rights.

Mary’s future

All these uses draw on the ancient belief in Mary’s power to intervene in times of trouble. However, ideological, political and especially military ambitions and religious sentiment are a volatile mix. As the current war in Ukraine shows, allegiance to one’s nation, especially when it claims Christian inspiration, can inspire both imperialist expansionism and heroic resistance to it.

This makes a better understanding of religious nationalism urgently important, especially for the church. Twentieth- and 21st-century popes have condemned aggressive nationalism but have not defined it clearly.

In cultures that are largely secularized, appeals for Mary’s protection or claims that she has a special relationship with any one nation are now likely to seem archaic, outlandish or sectarian. But what I know of both Marian devotion and national identity has convinced me that ancient patterns often survive and reassert themselves in new times and places.

Even where the practice of Catholicism is in decline, Mary’s cultural significance remains strong. And religion continues to be a regular element of many nationalist agendas .

My guess is that we have not seen the last of the warrior Virgin.

• Christianity
• Nationalism
• Catholicism
• Religion and politics
• Roman Catholic Church
• Virgin Mary
• Christian history
• Religion and society
• Patron saints

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