Marian icons and images: art and spirituality
Marian icons and images, art and spirituality
Marian icons and images are a privileged form of theology in images: through sacred art they express the faith of the Church concerning Mary. The Marian artistic tradition is as rich as the written tradition, and in many cases preceded it. For the full article, see Marian Icons and Images.
The great iconographic types
The most important Marian iconographic types in the Eastern tradition: Hodegetria (“She who points out the Way”), Mary points to the Child as the Way. Eleousa (“the Compassionate” or “Glykophilousa”), Mary and the Child face to face. Orans, Mary with her arms raised in prayer. Platytera, Mary with the Child in her bosom like a medallion.
The iconoclast controversy
In the eighth and ninth centuries, the Byzantine Empire was shaken by the iconoclast controversy: the emperors forbade sacred images. The Second Council of Nicaea (787) defined the legitimacy of the veneration of images, including Marian ones. The honor paid to the image passes to its prototype: to venerate the image of Mary is to venerate Mary.
Miraculous images
Some Marian images are venerated as miraculous or acheiropoietos (not made by human hands): Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Virgin of Guadalupe (whose image on Juan Diego’s cloak has no satisfactory technical explanation), Our Lady of Cap-de-la-Madeleine. These images have become centers of pilgrimage and of Marian devotion.
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Magisterium of the Church
Imagines sacrae et icones Beatae Virginis in Ecclesia honori habentur non propter materiam ex qua fiunt, sed propter prototypum quod repraesentant.
Second Council of Nicaea (787), Dogmatic Definition, apud Denz.-Hün. 601
📚 Literal translation: The sacred images and icons of the Blessed Virgin are honored in the Church not because of the matter of which they are made, but because of the prototype which they represent.
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This article grows out of the works in the Locus Mariologicus library. The Postgraduate Program in Mariology takes you to the same source, with academic guidance: Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, and the Magisterium, from the first dogma to contemporary questions.
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