There was a lively and fascinating discussion about portrayals of Mary a few weeks ago after Steven Graydanus’ post The Many Faces of Mary and after my response, Even More Faces of Mary. It’s been a wonderful revelation to see how Mary is depicted in different cultures at different times—both in miraculous visions and as she appears through the lens of different cultural sensibilities. This variation is, of course, a feature and not a bug: the mother of us all is going to look different to different people, because we need her in different ways.
One image that stays with me was not actually intended as an image of Mary at all—but if it were, it would be my favorite. Rather than post it, I’m going to link to it, because it is a disturbing image at first, and may not be suitable for children or the easily distressed:
“Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath” by W. Eugene Smith, 1972
A Japanese woman tenderly bathes her daughter, who was deformed in utero by mercury poisoning. Look at the face of the mother. As a mother myself, and as a daughter, and as a helpless, contorted child of Eve, this image says so much about Mother Mary—how we need her, and how she treats us.
Images like this can sometimes be as enlightening as traditional religious imagery, at least for some people. Several commenters in my “Even More Faces” post made the point that the heartily despised new statue in the new L.A. cathedral doesn’t look like Mary, because it didn’t have the easily-identifiable signs of either humble virgin or exalted queen.
I wasn’t actually crazy about that particular statue in itself, although it seemed okay to me. What I liked about it was that it made me think about Mary in a slightly new way—a way which is often harder to access in more traditional imagery, which can be clouded in a haze of overly familiar symbology. It’s debatable whether or not that this unfamliarity made the image inappropriate as a feature in the sanctuary of the church—but I believe that, for private devotions, we can only benefit by looking for Mary everywhere in art, whether the artist had her in mind or not.
Just as Mary is larger and more profound than any one culture or century, she is larger than a single set of traditional religious symbols. Like any good mother, she is ready and eager to come to us through any means she can. We used to joke that my mother’s mother had a helicopter parked in her backyard. If anyone was sick or sad, lonely or in distress, she’d drop what she was doing, fire up the helicopter, and be at your side in no time.
I like to think that Mary is not too dainty to hop into a helicopter if we need her—or to hold us tenderly, seeing past our deformed souls and into the small part of us that is worthy of her care.
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The pictures of the mother and her children in the Dust Bowl always strike me in the same way. That is a Mary who is *vigilant*! She has got one eye on the horizon, is tough as nails, and cradles us tenderly and securely in her arms.
http://ghostofthetalkingcricket.squarespace.com/storage/dust bowl 8b29525r.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1287495573489
Wow… what a beautiful image! Thanks for sharing, Simcha; that was incredible!
Thank you for providing a few things to ruminate, especially how Mary is a mother to us and all the ways that may be depicted. Very moving photograph, thank you for sharing (and God bless the photographer for display a lovely, unflinching picture of a subject matter many would rather forget or ignore).
For me, the defining characteristic of any image of Mary is the eyes. They must blend peace and sorrow.
Most of the various faces of Mary are particular in some way, because, as you said, we need her in different and particular ways. So statues and images can get quite specific: she’s shown in a Carmelite habit, or wearing a traditional South American maternity belt, or with a lap full of harvested fruit, or holding a rosary, or breastfeeding the infant Jesus, or all in white, or all in blue, or… you get the picture. Queen of Heaven, Queen of Martyrs, Immaculate Heart, Immaculate Conception, Daughter of Zion, Star of the Sea… so many particular titles. And of course many of the parishes and cathedrals and basilicas dedicated to her are named after these titles. It’s usually not just “St. Mary’s” but “Queen of Peace Parish” or “Immaculate Conception Parish.”
But: Don’t forget that one of Mary’s titles is “Woman.”
That doesn’t have much in the way of “easily-identifiable” signs to it.
Arguably, a cathedral for the city of angels should have shown the particular facet of Mary that is its patroness. “Mary, Queen of Angels.”
Still, wouldn’t “Mary, Woman” be an awesome name for a parish?
Have you read “Our Lady of the Lost and Found”? I’ve given this novel to tons of people. Mary goes to visit a Canadian writer who works at home because she just needs some time out to rest before the ‘busy season.’ I think my favorite moment in the novel is when the modern woman tries to show Mary how to use the washer - and as the BVM expertly loads clothes and detergent, she says, “It has been a long time since I had to beat clothes against a rock.”
That part is amusing, but the book is really a meditation on how Mary is found in and responsive to our different cultures.
No commercials here, but I just checked on Amazon and it is still in print, on Kindle and lots of one cent used copies (my favorite Amazon treat!) are available.
One year, at Christmas time, my grandparents were visiting from Buffalo. My grandmother is Italian, my grandfather is Polish. They are rather traditional in their like of religious imagery. I was in high school at the time and my mother and my grandmother (her mother) had started a habit of going to different stores for after Christmas sales and I tagged along. In one of the shopping center/strip malls we went to was a non-profit store that have items from third world countries that it sold and shipped money back to the artisans in that country. Many were South American and being so close after Christmas, there were many creches and Nativity scenes. As we walked through looking at them, my grandmother said, “I know it’s not right…” my mom tried to cut her off there and say, “Mom, don’t say it, don’t even…” but my grandma finished anyway, “I like it better when Mary is white.” I could have sunk into the floor and died on the spot. Fortunately, no one but us heard it. I turned to my Grandma and said, “Grandma, you know, Jesus was Jewish and he most likely did not have blond hair and pale skin. And Mary probably didn’t either.” She said, yeah, she knew. That experience probably is why non-traditional images of Mary and saints does not bother me. Artists have depicted her in a variety of ways depending on how they envisioned her in relationship to their own culture and surroundings. And I don’t think it is to diminish Mary to be able to relate to her in some way. After all, was she not a typical girl created for extraordinary experiences and in some ways we are too.
Beautiful, I couldn’t agree more. The photograph is stunning. Thank you, as always.
@Kristen: I had a “stara mama” who would say things like that also. But at least she had a sense of humor about her racism and, when pressed, would admit that “we are all black in the dark.” In a way, your grandmother was just being honest and I sort of wish it was still like that. I mean, your grandmother preferred a Mary that looked familiar. While we might not approve, that is the same instinct that compells the artists of every race and time to depict Mary as one of their own. Today, that sort of honesty is not tolerated so instead of being able to say, “I prefer a Mary that resembles me genetically,” we are forced to be more creative (er, politically correct) in explaining why the LA Madonna might make us feel uncomfortable.
I remember selling “third world” made Christmas ornaments, which were angels with black skin, to a local United Church minister. She showed them to a Sunday school class and asked the children what was different about the angels. One of the children excitedly replied that “They had skin!”
Why does the image of Mary in a helicopter remind me of the Mr. Bean episode where he’s playing with the department store Nativity Scene?
The helicopter image reminded me of the opening scene for La Dolce Vita (www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo84caBoToQ), substituting Jesus for Mary of course.
I just read your post on ‘seven things’ and the trouble you had making bubbles and running out of water in the heat of summer….and then read this article about the images of Mary. And I thought “can this be the same person? No way. And lo and behold it’s you both times.
Crazy…but I can relate to the remnants of artistic appreciaton and ascending to tender moments of faith and Holy Spirit inspired beauty…they still occasionally catch me by surprise and punctuate the ant infestations, wet bathing suits that are left on the stairs/bed/rug/floor/bathroom/bed, and multiple moments when I actually say things I never, ever imagined that I would in BH, (“before motherhood”). Things such as ‘whose poop is this?’ as I examine it and try to figure out which child it might belong to. I actually did that earlier tonight and it never occurred to me that i was doing something completely gross. It was all about JUSTICE and attempting to get my children to actually flush their actual excrement. Themselves. Without threats of losing whatever I could think of quickly that they might value if I refused to grant to them.
Anyway, these two articles were comforting to me - to see that you have this paradox in your life as well. You actually go a little lower in the disheveled household department (okay, sometimes I am lower) and higher in the exquisiteness of spiritual insights and bursts of intellectual functioning that are reminiscent of When I Was Smart (also before motherhood) (and mostly in college).
So thanks for speaking and writing out of both sides of your brain - the sane and the insane sides. I can totally relate. Another glimmer of hope rises from the laundry pile of my brain.
I don’t think there’s anything racist or wrong about preferring Mary to look like your own mother. Although I very much enjoy portrayals of Mary from other ethnicities (they are usually remarkably beautiful), I like a more “familiar” Mary for my own home. I just think its silly to be so “multicultural” that you are afraid to really embrace your own :)
I’ve seen the L.A. cathedral statue in person. There are a couple reasons I don’t care for it. The first few times I saw it, I had no clue it was even supposed to be Mary. It’s mounted above the entrance to the cathedral (which maybe should have given me a clue, but hey), so you have to look up to see it. Frankly, from that angle it looks like a boy: You don’t see the ponytail in back, and from the front it looks like she’s sporting a man’s haircut.
Once I found out it was Mary, I felt a little better about it. I don’t say there is anything wrong with it as a statue of Mary per se. My criticism has more to do with the way they designed and utilized it in this particular context. When you consider that the cathedral is named for Our Lady Queen of Angels, and this statue of Our Lady adorns the main entrance to the cathedral, you expect something a bit more queen-like, and maybe surrounded by an angel or two. This plain peasant-girl look is fine, but shouldn’t the artist have made some slight attempt to capture the idea of “Queen of Angels” rather than “Peasant Girl”? It just seems as if the artist/archtect thought it best to *avoid* any appearance of queenliness for some reason. In this context, that makes no sense to me.
I don’t have a problem with the facial features of the statue in OLQA, it is the other aspects of this depiction of Mary that are off-putting. She does look very Star Trekkie or like something one would see in a Scientology facility. The usual symbols of Mary are completely lacking and her stance is weird. I think that is what people are bothered by. I think that different depictions of Mary are just fine to reflect cultural perspectives. Here is a depiction of Mary that some found offensive, but I thought it was fine and even appropriate for our area: http://www.signonsandiego.com/photos/2011/apr/25/359106/ BTW, this has been removed from the underpass and will be relocated in the future. But, it turned out to be a very popular piece of local art.
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