medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> This query prob. should to Med-Art but that seems a bit quiet these days. In
> my High Middle Ages course the other day, a student was giving a
> presentation that involved several Eastern (Orthodox) Madonnas and Child. In
> each case the Child was grasping a rolled up scroll in his hand and no one
> including me, know anything about it. Does anyone know the identity and
> purpose of this iconographic convention ?
Dear John,
The oldest images of the Virgin and Child, dating back to the 6th, and perhaps the
5th, century, usually have the Christ Child holding a scroll or rotulus, which in the
west eventually gets changed into a book. In Byzantine art, it is more common to
retain the scroll. It is a moot point, I suppose, whether this book, in either form,
specifically represents the Gospels or more generally the Word of God. An
interesting variant that crops up in the later Middle Ages has the Christ Child
suckling the Virgin's breast while he writes on a scroll, giving Mary a more
instrumental importance in bringing the word of God to humanity.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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