Academic literature on the topic 'Coronation of the Virgin, angels and saints'

Henricus Isaac's grand six-voice motet Angeli archangeli (Angels, archangels) sets a text from the liturgy of the Feast of All Saints (November 1), but its only preexistent musical material is a cantus firmus in the tenor voice, drawn from the tenor of the mid 15th-century chanson Comme femme desconfortéée (As a woman in distress), attributed to Binchois. Scholars have assumed that Angeli archangeli is a motet for All Saints but have been at a loss to explain why Isaac chose the cantus firmus he did. This study attempts to explain Isaac's puzzling juxtaposition of Latin text and secular cantus firmus by suggesting that Angeli archangeli is not a motet for All Saints, but rather for the Assumption of the Virgin. Liturgical analysis of the motet text reveals that its connection to the Feast of All Saints (November 1) is weaker than has previously been assumed. Additionally, examination of numerous other sacred works that incorporate the Comme femme desconfortéée tenor demonstrates that it was widely understood as a Marian cantus firmus ca. 1500. The Marian associations of the cantus firmus help to explain why one manuscript source (VatS 46) groups the work with other Marian motets, and why another (LeipU 1494) transmits it with a Marian contrafact text (O regina nobilissima). Finally, by relating the musical construction of Angeli archangeli to the Assumption of the Virgin as depicted in late medieval liturgy, iconography, and in Jacobus de Voragine's widely read Legenda aurea, it is suggested that the text of Angeli archangeli, though drawn from the All Saints liturgy, actually describes Mary's assumption into heaven. Sacred text and secular cantus firmus thus collaborate in communicating a complex but clear theological/devotional meaning.

Three cinquecento polychrome wood-carved altars have been preserved on the island of Lopud near Dubrovnik, the most monumental of which is situated in the parish church of Our Lady of Šunj. Its retable was constructed to resemble a classical aedicule, with an intricately carved frame and a central figural depiction of the Assumption of the Virgin, complemented by a complex iconographic programme in the symmetrically arranged adjoining scenes. Filling the small cassettes of the predella are reliefs of the Annunciation and Christ as the Man of Sorrows, together with perspectively rendered narrative scenes of the Last Supper and the Washing of the Feet, while in the pediment is a frontal depiction of the Coronation of the Virgin by the Holy Trinity. In the narrow side wings between the columns and pilasters are four bas-reliefs of local patron saints depicted half-turned towards the central image, and thus achieving an overall plastic harmony for a demanding content. In terms of space, the main scene is well-developed through a pronounced sculptural modelling of the figures of the eleven apostles in the round, the most prominent of which is that of St Peter, placed in the foreground and turned to face the nave of the church, while the others are consumed by the miraculous assumption of the Virgin into heaven. She is followed high up by a pair of small angels and several tiny symbolical cherubim heads, all of which helps to achieve an extremely convincing religious scene. Its attractiveness is significantly heightened by the all’antica realism and pedantic Roman-inspired modelling which highlight the skill of a highly trained and talented master wood carver, which leaves no doubt that this is a special work of art, and indeed, the most beautiful carved wood retable in the east Adriatic which has survived to date. In this first complete study of the altar, the author traces historical records in which it is mentioned without the exact year of its creation, origin or carver being cited. He dispels the tradition that the altar was brought from England, supposedly from the Chapel of Henry VIII, and explains this tradition as having been based on the discovery of an alabaster altar, a typical product of late Gothic workshops at Nottingham, several examples of which exist in Dalmatia. From the seventeenth-century records, on the other hand, we learn that the altar in the church of the „Madonna del Sugni” (a vernacular Italo-Croatian transformation of the word Assunta) was dedicated in 1572. An examination of comparative material establishes that the altar’s compositional scheme draws upon altarpieces painted by Alvise Vivarini around 1480, while its morphological features find their closest parallel in the activities and mannerisms of the Venetian workshop of Paolo Campsa, who worked from the 1490s to the early 1550s, and who sold his works in the wide area under the government of La Serenissima. The Republic of Venice profited a great deal from this export, while its urban centre’s innumerable wooden altars disappeared following subsequent changes of fashion. A group of securely attributed works shows that Paolo Campsa frequently borrowed formulas and idioms from Venetian painters of the older generation; analogies with two of Vivarini’s altar paintings confirm that he repeated this technique on the Lopud altar, even though altars as complex as this are not found in the surviving oeuvre of this artist. An overview of the extremely numerous works attributed to this fecund wood carver has not led to a secure attribution of this scenically developed altar to his hand. However, an analytical observation points to significant similarities with individual figures considered by scholars of Renaissance wooden sculpture to be products of his workshop - more a factory, in fact - or of his circle which, without a doubt, Paolo stamped with his mark. Apart from the assumption that there are master wood carvers who have not been identified, or formally and clearly differentiated, who followed his teachings and mannerisms, this paper opens the possibility of locating more exactly the place of the altar’s creation. Since Campsa’s workshop was active even after his death, it can be assumed that the altar was made in the 1560s or 1570s, and that it was transported and assembled on the island of Lopud for its dedication of 1572. Furthermore, the author observes the meaning of the subsequent addition of the background, which was painted once the altar reached its destination; it shows a summarized depiction of the scenery of Lopud and a tiny settlement with a precisely and proportionately drawn sailing ship docked at the island’s bay. The background reveals that the nature of the work was votive and, by identifying the layers of local historical circumstance and by combining them with the relevant written sources, it can be connected to the activities of the distinguished ship owner Miho Pracat, the richest citizen of the Republic of Dubrovnik during the cinquecento. Two more wooden sculptures can be added to Miho Pracat’s donation to his home island: the figures of St Catherine and St Roch which were also made in Venice and which had originally belonged to a small altar of his family in the local church of St Francis, known from archival records. This altar was composed of an older polychrome triptych, now unfortunately lost, and which, together with a pair of side statues, formed a piece resembling a number of altarpieces from Paolo Campsa’s workshop. Thus, the analysis of these works of art reveals key components of visual culture, and a peculiar mosaic of sixteenth-century artistic production in a peripheral community of the small island of Lopud under the government of the Republic of Dubrovnik.

Sacred personae of the officially recognized religious systems often appear in charms in order to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of the ritual. Their appearance is particularly common in Greek narrative charms where they often assume the role of the auxiliary agent who expels the malevolent factor and provides a cure to the afflicted person. In this context, the appearance of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Angels, Archangels, the Apostles, as well as various saints, is also quite frequent. There is, however, a peculiarity in terms of the role that the figure of the Virgin Mary (Panagia, Theotokos) assumes. This holy figure can not only assume the role of an auxiliary sacred agent who provides a cure to the afflicted person, but also the role of the afflicted, seeking healing treatment by another holy figure. Worth mentioning in the last case is that this affliction could have as its source another sacred figure such as the Apostles or even the Angels. In which particular charm-types does the Virgin Mary appear as the afflicted person? Which are the factors leading to the onset of this affliction and which are the symptoms experienced by the holy figure? How is this affliction cured and by whom? How could we, finally, explain this ambiguity of the Virgin Mary (Panagia) who appears to be standing in a liminal and transitional space between the sacred and the secular, divine and human, healer and afflicted? These are some of the questions that this article seeks to examine and answer.

The sacristy of the monastic Church of St. Francis (Sveti Frane) in Zadar, held by the Franciscan Province of Saint Jerome, holds a painting by Lazzaro Bastiani, a Venetian painter of the early Renaissance. The painting is venerated as a depiction of the Virgin of Mercy (Ara Coeli). The upper section of the painting features the Blessed Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. The Virgin is shown sitting in a mandorla made of angels with a crescent beneath her feet. God the Father is placing a crown on her head. Two angels are holding the ends of her outspread cloak, in front of which are saints: the men on the right and the women on the left. A church is depicted against the backdrop of a hilly landscape. It is positioned on a mound, with a railing ending in a staircase leading to it. The lower section of the painting features three groups, all genuflecting: men to the left, children in the middle, and women to the right. The group of men is dominated by the figure of Pope Sixtus IV (1471‒1484). Even after 175 years of research, the following questions remain contested: • the dating of the painting and the date of its arrival in Zadar • the identification of the patrons and the interpretation of the painting’s symbolism • the identification of the shrines depicted in the painting, and, finally • the identification of the historical figures featured. The aim of the authors is to try to elucidate, at least in part, the theological and historical context of the painting’s production, and to identify the historical figures and the shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary depicted therein.

The article attempts to analyse the image of paradise in “The Sermon on the Annunciation of the Holy Virgin" from the collection "The Key of Understanding" (1659) by Ioanikii Galiatovskii. Paradise in his sermon is depicted as a hierarchical structure of the nine Angelic Choirs: the Angels, the Archangels, the Principality, the Authority, the Mastery, the Parish, the Throne, the Cherubim, and the Seraphim. Comparing the angelic choirs of Galiatovskii and the depiction of celestial choirs in «The Mirror of Theology» (1618) by Cyryl Trankvylion Stavrovetskyi, one can see some differences, including a change in the sequence of arrangement of angelic choirs and in the semantics of names, which Galiatovskii supplements with explanations of the saints' presence on all choirs. The theme of the Annunciation that becomes the beginning of the salvation of the human soul is brought closer to the understanding of paradise. If one compares the preaching on Gospel with a painting one can easily grasp substantial differences in the interpretation. Galiatovskii does not follow the biblical story of the Annunciation, which tells how did the Archangel Gabriel appear to the Holy Virgin and inform her of the birth of Christ. Instead, he interprets this event in anagogical (spiritual sense), describing paradise and the Blessed Virgin in a similar way. Visual art closely follows the biblical text when depicting the Annunciation – the Holy Virgin and the Archangel, who holds a white lily that means god news, are surrounded by several tiny angels that are holding a white lily flower (like in the painting by the French artist Philip de Champaign "Annunciation", 1644). Interestingly, the interpretation of the Annunciation in Ioanikii Galiatovskii’s writing is close to the theme of the Assumption. One might mention the painting "Assumption of the Virgin" (1475 - 1476) by the Italian artist Francesco Botticini, who depicted the Holy Virgin standing next to the hierarchical structure of the nine Angelic Choirs.

This research reports the imagery representation of the Moon in the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception with Saints and Angels (1611) by Domenico Cresti (Passignano). Our goal is to defend this image as a telescopic representation of the Galilean Moon, that is, a cratered Moon as presented by Galileo Galilei in his work Sidereus nuncius (1610). Passignano was a friend of the artist Lodovico Cardi (Cigoli) who corresponded with Galileo and exchanged information on telescopic observations. This relationship between the artists and Galileo reinforces the possibility that the two painters had represented cratered the moons. The research consists of bibliographical and imaginary research and, at the end, the Moon of Passignano as the first representation of a Galilean Moon inside a Church.

AbstractThe article examines dreaming and dream narratives in Legio Maria, sub-Saharan Africa's largest African instituted church with a Roman Catholic background. Most Legios valorize a Black Christ and Black Mary but do so while espousing anti-essentialist attitudes towards racialization of the sacred. The social, cultural and symbolic hybridity of the Joluo (Kenya Luo), who still form the majority of the membership in this multi-ethnic, multi-national church, has influenced Legios' religious outlook. Legios' views are contrasted with some white and black theologies that take more monochrome, particularistic positions on the color of the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, Satan, saints, angels and demons. I discuss how Legios' eclectic altar iconography and dreams interact and influence one another. The article demonstrates that Legio Maria's theology of color has resonances with the perspectives on postmodern humanism and postmodern blackness formulated by scholars like Michel Foucault, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Vincent Anderson and bell hooks.

(1) Background. The aim of this work is to combine non-invasive imaging with chemical characterization analyses to study original and restoration materials of a late 16th-century painting on a canvas representing the “Coronation of the Virgin with the Saints Ambrose and Jerome”, preserved in the Diocesan archive of Orte, a town in the district of Viterbo (Italy). The diagnostic campaign was addressed to support the restoration activities and the choice of the most suitable cleaning operations. (2) Methods. Both traditional analytical techniques and innovative multispectral imaging were applied to solve the diagnostic issues and best address the restoration of the painting. Specifically, hypercolorimetric multispectral imaging (HMI), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), optical microscopy, and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were combined to obtain information on the general conservation state of the artwork and the characterization of pigments, organic binders, and superimposed materials, these last being particularly important to identify ancient and not-documented restoration intervention, enabling the correct choice of the most suitable and effective cleaning intervention. (3) Results. Multispectral data allowed us to differentiate and map original materials through infrared and ultraviolet false color images and spectral reflectance-based similarity maps, suggesting pigment attribution and focusing point analysis for characterization. This approach was particularly successful to identify and locate the presence of unaltered smalt blue in the first painting coat, which had been covered with other pigments, and to suggest the use of organic dye in mixtures with cinnabar and ochres. Spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques enabled us to identify the painting palette and confirm the use of oil-based binder for the pigments and characterize the altered top layers, made with a natural resin and an animal glue. (4) Conclusions. The characterization of the artwork’s materials was essential to select the most suitable methods and materials for the bio-cleaning, based on bacteria, experimented with during the restoration activities.

The genre of Old Russian visions is a vast, variegated material. This greatly complicates its systematization. However, if we take as a basis the idea of connecting the genre with the medieval picture of the world, possible to describe the visions as an orderly system. In accordance with the dual picture of the world of Old Russian man, visions are divided by content into eschatological and related to the earthly being. The main attention of our work is focused on visions of the last thematic variety, because eschatological ones represent a specific group of material requiring special research. Also, in accordance with the idea of dualism, the characters of another world in visions of the earthly life belong to the sacred or infernal world. Therefore, in general, we can talk about two types of characters in visions. The sacred characters (the Virgin, apostles, saints, angels, etc.) have the main functions of the assistance in different variants, prophecy, punishment, etc. The infernal characters (as a rule, these are demons) have functions of temptation and torment. According to the named of the extramundane characters functions, thematic groups of visions (help”, “prophecies”, “punishment”, etc.) are distinguished. Within each group, their specific thematic varieties form several subgroups (for example, the «help» group has subgroups: the «visions containing any indication of action», the «visions after / during which healing takes place», the «visions in which the expelling demons takes place », etc.). This article presents the experience in the typology of the visions reflecting our initial observations and not pretending to be comprehensive. Therefore, all the thematic sections of the typology are illustrated by particular examples can be corrected further in connection with the replenishment of new material.

One of the common and sacred genres of the confessional style is prayer as a way of uniting man with God in order to thank, ask, accept, repent, and so on. Linguistic features of prayers, both those that are a direct expression of religious style and those that function in the structure of literary texts, at different times became the object of study for many scientists, but the structure of addresses in prayers was not studied, what determined the relevance of the topic of the article. The purpose of the study is to analyze the structure of addresses as an integral part of prayers that represents an indirect speech in the confessional style. Realization of the set purpose provides for enforcement of such tasks: 1) to characterize the basic aspects of the functioning of confessional style, to define a place of prayer as a genre in it; 2) to describe the structure of addresses, which are separated from prayers, in order to determine the most productive constructions. From our point of view, the most significant feature of indirect speech is the presence of addresses, because in prayers stylistic and expressive possibilities of vocatives are manifested in a special way. Firstly, speakers with a particular problem ask God, the Virgin, angels, saints, etc, who can help them. Moreover, they address repeatedly, often using synonyms or variant names. Secondly, such addresses are codified, and commonplace, because prayers provide for the use of standard texts that believers must remember. Thirdly, the subjects of addressing constructions very often have additional means of dissemination, including literal meanings, homogeneous Apposition, separate members of a sentence, and even predicative units, which are rarely recorded in other speech patterns. It is on this basis that all addresses recorded by us in Orthodox prayers are classified into three groups: 1) simple or unextended (36.12 %: nouns, substantivized adjectives, and Participle that mostly have religious character); 2) extended uncomplicated or two-component (21.81 %: mostly models «adjective + noun», «noun + adjective», «noun + noun» and «noun + pronoun» and «noun + pronoun», the components of which often are also sacred); 3) extended complicated or multicomponent (42.07 %). There are several ways to complicate vocative phrases: to add apposition to the addresses, to use homogeneous addresses, and as a means of complicating – dependent homogeneous members of the sentence (mostly Attributes), separate members of the sentence, tautological expressions, and more. One of the characteristic features of prayers is the presence of addresses complicated by sentences, and also complex syntactic constructions).

This chapter explores the transmission of religious objects, ideas, and practices between the household and the wider community. Occupying a central place in the discussion is the Holy House of Loreto, the Virgin’s own home, which was supposedly transported by angels in the thirteenth century from the Holy Land to the Papal States. Despite Counter-Reformation attempts to impose boundaries between sacred and profane space, the Italian Renaissance casa was not a bounded, sealed space but was infinitely receptive to outside influences. In attending to thresholds, this final chapter insists on a fluid conception of the home: a locale with a special place in the divine cosmos, protected by Christ, the Virgin, and saints and open to the presence of the supernatural.

The first publication of an English translation of The Vineyard of Our Saviour, a 15th-century French/Latin sermon on the end of time comes at an auspicious time. The anonymous author of The Vineyard speaks of events at the end of the world, which ravage our world today-- raging forest fires, earthquakes, floods, draughts, and wars. The Vineyard also describes the appearance of the Antichrist, the Last Judgment, the tortures of hell and the joys of paradise. The drama of the text is heightened by over 70 illuminations that make this medieval manuscript one of the most treasured in the Bodleian Library. These images may be viewed while reading the translation thanks to the generosity of the Bodleian. The anonymous artists of these illuminations present unforgettable images of maniacal devils inflicting horrendous tortures on the damned, as well as scenes of saints and angels singing and playing musical instruments in the heavenly courts of Christ and the Blessed Virgin. The illuminations also link The Vineyard to the Carthusians and to the music and musical instruments in the courts and chapels of the dukes of Burgundy. Place of honor is given to two Carthusian monks kneeling at the feet of Christ in paradise. The monks are in all likelihood modeled from those in the Carthusian monasteries that flourished during the writing of this manuscript: the Chartreuse de Champmol, located on the outskirts of Dijon and built by the first Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold; and the Grande Chartreuse situated in the mountains above the city of Grenoble. The musical instruments in the courts of heaven are those of the royal courts and chapels of the Dukes of Burgundy. The illuminations reveal many details that define the God-centered milieu that inspired religious devotion and the finest sacred music of the 15th-century.

Abstract On June 9, 1311, the people of Siena closed their shops and made holiday. Moving from the workshop of Duccio di Buoninsegna through the streets of the city to the Cathedral of the Assumption, they celebrated the completion of the great altarpiece the Maesta, or Virgin in Majesty. Layered with gold and rich pigments, Duccio’s masterpiece portrayed Mary in regal splendor, enthroned with the infant Jesus on her lap and surrounded by saints and angels. The panels placed above the large central image depicted scenes from Mary’s last days, her death, assumption, and coronation.

Abstract From the earliest performances in the Middle Ages to the virgin martyr plays of the Stuart era, English theatre-makers experimented with and perfected theatrical conventions to show sainthood. The Epilogue concludes the book with an extended meditation on encounters with faith and belief in the absences and provocations of miraculous illusion developed in and alongside theatrical sainthood. It focuses on two nondramatic lives that exclude miraculous illusion before turning to a millennial dramatic fantasy that revels in it. The twelfth-century Life of Christina of Markyate and the late twentieth-century film Breaking the Waves offer stories of sanctity that invite doubt and denial. Moreover, both the text and the film lack many of the conventions of showing sainthood that operate in medieval and early modern saint plays. In contrast, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner utilizes the miraculous theatricality of the saint plays. In its staging and stage directions, Kushner’s two-part epic recovers the capacity and necessity of illusion in the staging of miracles.

The principal problem of this paper is identity of Saint Berrnard of Clairvaux presented in the Dante’s „Paradiso”: O. It was object of research of some scholars. We can mention Erich Auerbach, Klemens Morawski, Jacek Grzybowski, Wojciech Paluchowski, Steven Botterill. In general this scholars consider Bernard in the Dante’s world as guide and mentor of the poet wandering through the celestial spheres. In order to recognize the role of Bernard it is necessary to review the concept of universe. The Dante’s cosmos is the structure of nine concentrique spheres — plantar spheres (Moon Mercure, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), high spheres (The Sky of Stars, The Crystal Sky and Empireum). This cosmological structure is the basis of the structure and hierarchy of arts and sciences: (Moon — Grammar, Mercure — Dialectics, Venus — Rhetoric, Sun — Arithmetic, Mars — Music, Jupiter — Geometry, Saturn- Astrology, the Sky of Stars — Physics and Metaphysics, the Crystal Sky — Ethics, Empireum — Theology). The structure of Cosmos and the structure of sciences determine the journey of Dante an Beatrice, where they meet the protagonists, who allegorize the Christian ideals ( harmed — activists — convertites — scholars — martyrs — contemplators) However the higher spheres reveals the another protagonist — apostles Peter, James and John, who require the profession of three virtues, angels, and Virgin Mary. In Empireum Bernard appears, when Beatrice disappears and Bernard takes the role of guide and teacher for Dante. However this is totally different teaching, because Bernard, who have got the direct and intuitive vision of the divine reality, teaches Dante to view and observe God self by his own eyes. Bernard introduces his pupil to the relationship with God, however it is gradual introduction, leading through the some stages. The first stage is the contact with saints. The second stage is vision of Mary Mother of God. Dante observes her and sings with his master the extensive and brilliant anthem to her honor. The third is the experience of supernatural divine light. Dante l earns to see divine reality directly, intuitively and clearly. The ultimate experience of poet in Paradiso is the love, which transpierces his soul. The vision of Dante could be juxtaposed to the concept of contemplation from the De consideratione of Saint Bernard. Some aspects of Dante’s vision of God are common with the concept of unity with God of the fourths stage of love in the De diligendo deo of Bernard of Clairvaux, but only some elements of total unity in Paradiso are identified in this work. The concept of contemplation in the De consideratione, which is rational reflection on God, don’t correspond with the view of God in Empireum. Despite some controversies we can’t call Bernard orator and preacher, because he didn’t use speeches in his teaching. Hi isn’t also contemplative, because, contemplation takes place in the terrestrial live. Bernard in Empireum don’t contemplates God, but lives still in clear vision.