Sunday, December 20, 2015

The Visitation, the Fourth Sunday of Advent

This image of the Visitation created by Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS, Bee Still Studio.


A picture is worth a thousand words.   The Visitation of these two pregnant women, Mary and Elizabeth, is a favorite topic for religious artists throughout the Renaissance and even down to our own time.  

You can find on the Internet a variety of Visitation images, a few where the artist took the liberty of depicting some kind of x-ray imaging of the mothers’ wombs.   Clearly pictured the wombs contain the boys almost as if they are ready to play with one another.   Elizabeth’s boy should be leaping for joy; one image, however, has him bowing across the stomachs in adoration to his yet-to-be-born kin and Lord.

Brother Mickey McGrath, Oblate of Saint Francis de Sales, has a wonderful painting he calls the Windsock Visitation.  He depicts two African women in full colorful dress, one older and one younger, as appropriate, joyfully greeting one another.  He often includes a text in his paintings and the margin of this painting includes the words “This is the place of our delight and rest.” 

The McGrath image has a subtle treatment of the x-ray motif.   He agrees with the concept that these holy  pregnancies require more than the usual rounded stomach and overlays some colored spirals of cloth that come together as the women embrace one another.    




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