AUGUST 2005 - ISSUE 5 - ISSN 1448 - 632

	REPRESENTATIONS AND IMAGES OF MARY & CHRIST IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY PART II *   FATIMA L. CARVALHO

No subject has been more taboo in art history than the sexuality of Christ. In the period when a new Christian pantheon replaced the Greco-Roman panoply of pagan idols, Matthews (1999) reinterprets Early Christian Art, arguing that Christ was represented as equally male and female. Matthews advances what could be considered as a feminist critique of Christian Art by hypothesising that Christ was represented as a ‘Chameleon’, with direct relation to the provocative assertion in Paul’s letters to the Galatians, that in Christ ‘there is neither male or female; for you are all one in Jesus Christ (Gal 3:28). The metaphor of unification of male and female have been variously expressed through mosaics, statuettes and details of sarcophagi intended to promote on a philosophical level expressions of the unification of the two sides of the human personality.  

In early Christianity images of an effeminate Jesus, which were sometimes confused as images of Mary, were so represented as to denote his role as nurturer of souls. The feminine look of Christ in early Christianity have been detected in statuettes and mosaics where Jesus is usually represented with a round soft beardless face, encircled with light and extravagant hair that falls on his shoulders. As Matthews (1999:118) observes, the image of Christ has been taken to be an image of the Virgin given to the fact that Christ lacks any masculine vigour. Christ’s shoulders are narrow and sloping and his hips are broad.  Early Christianity art often shows feminine aspects of Christ such as swelling breasts that are ‘noticeable in sarcophagi of the 5th century in Ravenna’ (Matthews, 1999:128)

Figure 13 Statuette of seated Christ, c.350, Rome. Souce Matthews, 1999:131	Figure 14 Seated Christ, detail from a sarcophagus from the 5th Century in San Francesco, Ravena Source: Matthews, 1999:131

It seems that Christ is given breasts to mark the crucial difference between him as his apostle colleagues. However, the key point is that representations of a feminine Christ foretell the pivotal place occupied by Mary in the centuries to come when Christ’s sexual ambiguity was repressed and split between images of Christ and Mary. Thus, feminine representations of Christ in Early Christianity cannot be taken as accidental or as a transitory or regional development. Such images were not only widespread in Gaul, Rome, Ravenna, and Thessalonica from the mid 4th Century to the beginning of the 6th century (Matthews, 1999:135), but were also displaced and re-articulated as the body of Mary from the Renaissance onwards.  

Images of Mary in The Renaissance 

As mentioned in previous section, for Gnostic and Orthodox writers Christ was really polymorphous, however, the Renaissance painters would put a final stop to such a fluid sexual identity. Throughout the Renaissance an interest in the Virgin’s power and her essential role in incarnation endures in artistic representations such as the image below produced by Italian artist Andrea di Bartolo in 1415.

Figure 15 Andrea di Bartolo, Madonna and Child, 1415. Source Doug Adams, Art as Religious Studies, 1990:109

This image reveals a popular interest on the function and power exerted by the Virgin Mary who assumes a separate role from the baby boy. On the top of the image a pronouncedly male Jesus holds the bible with his right hand and blesses the humanity with his left. Mary is the link between Christ and humanity. Jesus retains a sexual male strength, however, one can observe signifiers of the dependence of Christ to his mother who is represented as a non-sexual being. Showing her essential role in the Incarnation, Mary nurses Jesus with only one naked breast. There are no sexual connotations attached to Mary. Her breast appears to be an appendix to her flat body (Miles: 1990:108-109). On the left low corner a sinner keels asking for the Virgin's intercession. The Virgin is the source of both nourishment and redemption of sinners who take shelter in her robes. According to Miles (1990:110), devotional compelling images of Mary and Jesus in the Renaissance supplied a rich provision for the devotional need of women and men for symbolic representations. Images as such articulated and supported spiritual life, directing religious affections towards salvation. 

As one can see in Pietry Perugino’s painting, feminine aspects of Christ are displaced onto Mary and Jesus is reaffirmed as male.

Figure 16 Pietro Perugino, Madonna and Child, 1500 Source Doug Adams, Art as Religious Studies, 1990:105

In Perugino’s ‘Madonna and Child’ (1500), Mary appears pointing out and looking at baby Christ’s uncovered genitals. The ambiguity attached to images from Early Christianity is thus overcome and sexual roles become more clearly defined.

Figure 17 Michelangelo’s Pieta- 1498-1500. Saint Peter's Basilica

 

Above is an important image from the Renaissance showing the youthful Mary seated majestically holding the dead body of Christ across her lap. This is a theme borrowed from northern European art. Instead of revealing extreme grief, Mary is restrained, her expression one of resignation.

Figure 18 Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ (2004) The Pieta scene after Christ descent from cross

Inspired by images of the Renaissance, Mel Gibson gives a twist to the original Pieta by attributing prominence to Mary at every stage of the story in the film ‘The Passion of Christ’ (2004). The true passion seems to be the suffering of the Mother of Christ and one is invited to see Jesus through the eyes of Mary and suffer with her. One is led to identify with the suffering gaze of Mary who allows emotional engagement in The Passion. The film displaces the relationship between Mary and Jesus into the universal relationship between a mother and son.

 

Fatima L. Carvalho is a team member of the Marie Curie Excellence Grant at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

* Part One of this series may be read here: http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/aejt_4/fatima.htm

Email: F.L.Carvalho@sussex.ac.uk

 

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