medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Martin Howley <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>My understanding is that the identificion of the Blessed Virgin with the
Queen of the May is late, certainly post-medieval, and that before this
equation was made her chief floral associations were the rose and the lily -
not the hawthorn. Do you know of any medieval reference that would place the
association earlier?
i don't know what a hawthorn/blackthorn/whitethorn flower looks like, but
certainly don't recall seeing any thorns among the foliate forms which, for
example, make up the "Tree of Jesse", the basic visual representation of the
genealogy of the BVM.
some awsome new photographs of the magnificent Tree from the West facade of
Chartres cathedral have recently been put on a website
http://rubens.anu.edu.au
look at the first paragraph of the page and follow the link.
these shots are *very* detailed, yet small in size because they are in a new
graphics format which compresses them by a factor of about 10.
to view them you have to download and install the "djvu" plugin
(the link is provided) on your machine. this is a painless process and well
worth doing, considering the extraordinary quality of these pictures (and,
surely, more to come on this site).
there are various "flowers" among the "vines" and branches of the "tree"
--perhaps someone less Botannically Challenged than i can identify them.
but i certainly don't see any thorns.
best from here,
christopher
"What about the older ones [Indians] ?"
"Well, we can't seem to cure them of the idea that our Everyday Life is only
an Illusion, behind which is the Reality of Dreams"
--Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo"
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0083946
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