art 10 Oct 2006 09:17 am
On the Maternal Kiss….
Learned something new:
Awhile back I posted a picture of The Maternal Kiss by Mary Cassatt.
This display of affection is something I have a “soft spot” for, both with my own children and when I see it done by others. There is a tenderness it communicates that is profound.
David and I are reading “At the Corner of East and Now” by Frederica Matthewes-Green, which is like a little picture-peek into the world of the Orthodox church, something that is completely foreign to us. Last night’s chapter was on the saints and the extensive use of icons in their worship. They have different terms for the images of Mary and Jesus:
“When she holds him upright and gestures towards him with her hand, the image is called the Virgin Hodgegetria.”
“When she cuddles him near, pressing cheek to cheek, it is the Virgin Glykophilousa–’sweet kissing’ or ‘of tenderness’.”
I had to say that slowly a few times before I could pronounce it: Gly-ko-phil-ousa.
Today I found this image that displayed it:
Very tender indeed, despite the iconographer’s (and historical artists by and large) tendancy to make the christ-child look like a skinny little man.
on 10 Oct 2006 at 3:16 pm 1.Beth said …
But some days motherhood looks more like this!
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/slavic/images/SORROWS.GIF
Being a Catholic convert myself, I’ve had to learn to appreciate the motherhood of Mary. It has been strange and new, but as I’ve allowed myself to appreciate Mary, and open myself to learning motherhood from Mary (and to leaning on her prayers for my own motherhood) I’ve been changed. I like the variety of iconographic depictions of Mary, because, though the Byzantine-ness doesn’t speak to me particularly, the sentiments do. Like the kiss, or like the “Mother of Sorrows”. I begin to feel a union of spirit with Mary that I hope begins to pervade my own mothering with tenderness, sorrow, mercy, & humility.
on 11 Oct 2006 at 7:58 am 2.Tia said …
LOL…her expression looks like one of totally fatigued exasperation!
Do the icons look like postage stamps to you? I need to look at them without the marks in the upper corners; that is very distracting!
Looking to Mary for how to mother is a totally new thing for me; on the one hand, I know I”m made in the image of God. On the other hand, the God that has been presented to me for a lifetime has almost no characteristics (feminine, motherly, nurturing) to relate to in my daily life. I don’t blame God for this…I blame the traditions I’ve been around! They’ve made Him totally masculine and left women out. Symptom in my life that helped me recognize this: I often compared myself to the personalities of the disciples, and never the women of the bible.
I’m made in His image and my life (my role) matters. So I’m looking anew to the examples set before me and Mary is one of them. That “union of spirit” comes quickly but it is still refreshing surprise.