VATICAN PLEA TO UNCOVER VIRGIN MARY
AND SHOW HER BREAST-FEEDING BABY JESUS
By Simon Caldwell
It might be enough to make Banksy drop his aerosol in the gutter in surprise or cause Lucien Freud to spill paint down his smock in shock. But the Vatican yesterday said it wanted to see more paintings of a semi-nude Virgin Mary. What Catholic leaders have in mind is more images of Mary breast-feeding baby Jesus. The official newspaper of the Holy See has declared it is time to undo four centuries of church disapproval of traditional representations of Mary as an earthy, fleshy mother doting on her newborn son. The latest edition of L’Osservatore Romano ran two articles by respected art critics who said that for nearly 1,500 years the Madonna was portrayed partly clothed and shamelessly nursing the Christ child. One of them blamed Protestant prudes for changing the trends in religious art that then led to the Virgin being covered up and left critics wondering if the infant Jesus was bottle-fed instead. Such currents were so strong that even the nudes in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel were covered up in fear of giving offence, and today the best places to see pictures of Mary nursing Jesus are not churches but major art galleries housing collections of Renaissance paintings. But the hugely influential newspaper - which is often seen as having the support of the Pope - has now called for the “artistic and spiritual rehabilitation” of “loving and tender” images of Mary breast-feeding. The intervention could inspire a revival in sacred art that would spell the end of 400 years of dressing up the Virgin to make her look “respectable”. One article, written by Italian Church historian Lucetta Scaraffia, claimed a vast iconography of traditional Christian art had been "censored by the modern age" because images depicting Mary's naked breast for her child were deemed too "unseemly". It said that artists later depicted the nursing Mary fully clothed because the Protestant reformers were generally critical of "the carnality and unbecoming nature of many sacred images". But Miss Scaraffia argued that later depictions had also diminished the Madonna’ s human side "that touches the hearts and faith of the devout". Miss Scaraffia said that when the early Christian artists represented the Virgin breast-feeding they had sought to reveal the reality of God's incarnation. A second piece, written by Father Enrico dal Covolo, a professor of classic and Christian literature in Rome, said: "The Virgin Mary who nurses her son Jesus is one of the most eloquent signs that the word of God truly and undoubtedly became flesh." Images of a semi-nude Mary breastfeeding can be traced back to early Christian times and were popular during the Renaissance period of the Middle Ages. But they came to an abrupt end around the 16th or 17th century with the emergence of Calvinism and other dour Protestant faiths that viewed representations of 'sexuality' as essentially sinful. Such ideas were resisted by Rome but they were accepted by Catholics particularly in France, Ireland and northern Europe. The result is that very few, if any, Catholic churches or newspapers will dare to show such imagery even today.
VATICAN APPROVES BREAST-FEEDING
PICTURES OF VIRGIN MARY
PICTURES OF VIRGIN MARY
The Vatican has called for worshipers
to be less prudish about seeing the Virgin Mary
breast-feeding Jesus.
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
A vast number of paintings depicting the bare breasts of the Madonna have been "censored by the modern age" because they were too "unseemly", according to L'Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Holy See.
Lucetta Scaraffia, a church historian, has called for the image of Mary as an human, tender and loving mother to be rehabilitated. She said: "Jesus was a baby like all others. His divinity does not exclude his humanity".
Since the 17th century, artists have been covering up Mary because of criticism about the "carnality and unbecoming nature of many sacred images".
The censorship was so widespread that even the nudes in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel were subsequently covered up for fear of offending worshippers.
Lucetta Scaraffia, a church historian, has called for the image of Mary as an human, tender and loving mother to be rehabilitated. She said: "Jesus was a baby like all others. His divinity does not exclude his humanity".
Since the 17th century, artists have been covering up Mary because of criticism about the "carnality and unbecoming nature of many sacred images".
The censorship was so widespread that even the nudes in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel were subsequently covered up for fear of offending worshippers.
❝Breastfeeding benefits the child and helps to create the closeness and maternal bonding so necessary for healthy child development. So human and natural is this bond that the Psalms use the image of the infant at its mother’s breast as a picture of God’s care for man.❞
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