Mater Dolorosa & Madonna and Child - Log Chapel - Starkenburg, MO - Statues of Religious Figures on Waymarking.com

County of statues: Montgomery County
Location of statues: MO-P, Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows, in small chapel, Starkenburg
Marker erected by: Church of the Risen Savior

The Mater Dolorosa is in the background up on the alter:
"Our Lady of Sorrows (Latin: Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows (Latin: Mater Dolorosa), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names by which the Blessed Virgin Mary is referred to in relation to sorrows in her life. As Mater Dolorosa, it is also a key subject for Marian art in the Catholic Church.

"The Seven Sorrows of Mary are a popular Roman Catholic devotion. In common religious Catholic imagery, the Blessed Virgin Mary is portrayed in a sorrowful and lacrimating affect, with seven daggers piercing her heart, often bleeding. Devotional prayers that consist of meditation began to elaborate on her Seven Sorrows based on the prophecy of Simeon. Common examples of piety under this title are Servite rosary, or the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady and the Seven Joys of Mary and more recently, "Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary"." ~ Wikipedia

"The evolution of art styles brings new freshness to these scenes as they are repeated throughout the centuries. In order to understand any gene or subject of art a viewer needs to understand the context of the genre or subject. For a subject like the Madonna and Child, which has spanned multiple artistic eras a viewer should look at the history and evolution of the art and how it affects the subject.

The Madonna and Child has been a common topic of art throughout the centuries but they were most influential in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance time periods. Paintings of the Madonna and Child have been dated back to before the sixth century and have continued to appear throughout the ages even to the present day. Despite how old and how popular of a subject the Madonna and Child is, artists manage to show a great deal of variety and originality over the years.

The history of the Madonna and Child starts in the Byzantine era. In this era paintings were not meant to look realistic, but rather were supposed to remind the viewer of a story or theological concept, in this case usually the concept that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. The years progressed and these paintings became more and more realistic as the Renaissance era was ushered in. During this time period artists strove to paint more accurate representations of their subjects. Even during this time, however there was still a use of iconology. Though all of these paintings have basically the same content, with the addition of various saints and angels, the theology that we can see in each painting differs greatly. Artists may have started may have started paying more attention to lifelike detail as they progressed from the Byzantine era to the Renaissance, but Madonna and Child paintings have always relied heavily on symbolism and iconology.

The Byzantine Madonna and Child was often times a simple representation. These paintings did not have accurate anatomical features. This was not because artists were unable to paint the human form accurately, they had been doing that for centuries before, they painted in this style because they were not made for the purpose of drawing attention to themselves. Instead they were designed to direct attention to the subject matter. The Byzantine Madonna and Child (at right) is an example of a typical work from the 13th century. Notice how there is little sense of depth and how Jesus is almost floating in Mary’s arm. Also notice how the baby Jesus is here depicted as having the features and proportions of an adult, but the overall body size of a child. These are features common of Byzantine art. The artist of this painting is trying to make the viewer think about and understand the concept that Christ was God and man at the same time. By using symbols the artist of this painting was able to convey more without making his painting more complicated. Some symbols present in this painting that give it more meaning than is seen on the surface are the color of Mary’s rob, the style in which the child Jesus is portrayed, and even the way He holds his right hand.

The artist here depicts Mary clad in her trademark blue robe. Mary is often portrayed wearing blue because blue represents purity, the virgin birth, and was often a color of royalty. This shows us that the artist believes in the virgin birth of Jesus and possibly that Mary is due honor since she is the mother of Christ. The infant Jesus is depicted with just as much or more care as Mary. The artist depicts Jesus as having the proportions of a Man in the size of an infant. Portraying Jesus in this manner depicts that he is aware of his divinity and still He chooses to remain as an infant. To further this point the artist shows Jesus’ right hand raised in the sign of blessing as if he is blessing his own mother. This is obviously not something a normal infant would do and is meant to show that Jesus is more than just an infant. These and other similar symbols are used throughout the ages.

The Byzantine era was ushered to a close with Giotto’s Madonna in Majesty, a type of Madonna and Child. In this painting Giotto began to rediscover the beauty of realistic art. For the first time in hundreds of years the human body was painted so that it looked like it actually takes up space and has physical mass in the world it is painted in. Renaissance artists also had a tendency to use much brighter and more vivid colors when painting. The main goal of Renaissance artists was no different from the goal of Byzantine artists, the difference was how their method of achieving that goal. The Byzantine artists thought that realism and detail was distracting and unnecessary, where the Renaissance artists believed that there was beauty in realism and beauty, since it is an attribute of God, is a good thing that should be striven for. Renaissance artists believed that beauty derived from realism was not a distraction but rather an aid in contemplating Godly things." ~ wordpress