The Madonna in 18th and 19th-century art: Tradition meets modernity

The text below is the excerpt of the book The Virgin in Art (ISBN: 9781683255925), written by Kyra Belán, published by Parkstone International.

During the next two centuries, the grip of the Church on the minds of the people lessened, due in part to the advent of the Age of Reason and the popularity of the sciences. Yet the cult of the Virgin persisted. Artists were free to explore secular themes, but some still gravitated toward the spiritual iconography, and the Madonna was often their favorite Christian subject. However, Mary would often appear drastically humanised, or simply served as an inspiration for themes related to motherhood. For a mother-and-child theme, for instance, artists closely followed the basic compositions of the Renaissance and the Baroque Madonnas. The Catholic Church, however, was once again ready to assert the image of the Great Mother in order to help revitalise and reenergize the thinning church-going flock, and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was officially proclaimed by the Vatican in 1854.

In Europe the cult of Mary was at this time on the back-burner, but devotion to Mary in the Americas was reaching unprecedented highs of veneration. “Mary Immaculate” was declared to be the patroness of the United States in 1846, while in South America she continued to be the inspiration of the people, their paramount intercessor and their syncretic savior. A great number of visions and sightings of Mary took place with astonishing regularity in various locations of the Old World and the New.

Artists who chose to create Marian images had the option either of following previously established formulas for Marian themes or of inventing new variations on these themes. Some of them accordingly followed traditional historical styles for their sacred images while others incorporated new techniques and stylistic approaches consistent with the new art movements developing at that time.

The Immaculate Conception

This theme, popular during the seventeenth century, was still important to the faithful of the eighteenth century. Gian Battista Piazzetta painted The Immaculate during the first half of that century. His youthful Madonna, surrounded by a glow of light, appears in the process of ascending into the sky, accompanied by several angels. The artist disregarded the standard tradition for this theme and altogether left out the crescent moon, making Mary less divine and more human.

The Birth of Mary

Corrado Giaquinto painted a lavish scene of The Birth of the Virgin in around 1750, perhaps as a study for a larger altarpiece on the same theme. Amidst the Rococo architectural setting, the newborn infant Mary is surrounded by several beautiful young women. On a cloud above, cherubim bring a crown of stars to the little Queen of Heaven.

The Education of the Virgin

Mary and her mother St Anne (or Anna) are the focus of the composition in The Education of the Virgin, painted by Jean Jouvenet around 1700. St Anne is pointing at an open scroll on her lap, and the youthful Mary is absorbed in reading. Cherubim, as decreed by tradition, hover above.

A scene from Mary’s childhood is the subject of a variation on the theme painted in 1849 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and titled The Childhood of Mary. Inspired by the artists of the Renaissance, this member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood shows Mary working at her needlepoint with her doting mother, St Anne (or Anna). An angel, lilies, a stack of books and a dove comprise the traditional symbols used by the artist to allude to the perfect purity and the holy wisdom of Mary.

The Annunciation

Atraditional approach can be observed in the painting by Pierre Auguste Pichon. Titled The Annunciation, it was executed in 1859. The Madonna faces the viewer, humbly crossing her hands over her breast in humility, while the archangel Gabriel bears symbolic lilies. The halo of the Virgin, studded with twelve stars, and her blue mantle are attributes which establish her as the Queen of Heaven. A dove, the allusion to the presence of the Holy Spirit, radiates golden beams of light toward the Virgin from above.

Dante Gabriel Rosetti completed his Ecce Ancilla Domini (Behold, the Handmaid of the Lord) between 1849 and 1853. It shows Mary, passively humble in her faith, on a bed in a nineteenth-century environment. A wingless archangel holds white lilies. Without any aura or radiance, a small dove flies above the flowers. The solid gold haloes of both Mary and Gabriel denote their heavenly stature in the midst of earthly surroundings.

The Madonna and Child

Artists who illustrated this theme during the eighteenth century were often inspired by works of earlier periods, particularly those of the Renaissance. Pompeo Batoni painted his Madonna and Child in a traditional realistic style. The bond of love between Mary and the infant Jesus is evident as the child’s hand gently caresses his mother’s chin. The Madonna’s classic head leans gracefully toward her son’s. He is holding an apple, an allusion to Mary’s role as the new Eve – interpreted as a means of salvation for humanity since medieval times.

An icon from eighteenth-century Russia (now in Ukraine), The Virgin of the Brotherhood depicts the Madonna as the true Queen of Heaven. The ornate background behind the standing figure of the Virgin with her child in her arms suggests the regal opulence of the heavenly realm that the faithful may hope to deserve to enter.

Another Orthodox Madonna from Poltava (now in Ukraine), The Virgin of the Sign was painted in 1732 as an altarpiece for a church. The Queen of Heaven is shown with her arms open in a gesture of blessing. The folds of her cape form a womb-like space in which the infant Jesus nestles, holding an orb. The resemblance between Mother and Son reminds devotees of both their godliness and the Immaculate Conception.

The 1885 painting by Mikhail Vrubel, The Virgin and Child, depicts a view of the holy Mother and her infant from the front. They seem fresh and human, yet the large haloes that surround their heads, together with the luxurious surroundings, attest to the sacred stature of the Madonna and of the infant Jesus.

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