medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Conlegae doctissimi,
as it happens, this is an issue on the early history of which I'm working on at the moment.
To make the long story short:
blue - and purple - used to have a theological symbolism originating with the Alexandrian OT interpreters. Whatever their "original" significance (see F Delitzsch, Iris. Farbenstudien und Blumenstücke, Leipzig, 1888), the Alexandrian interpretation assigned to the colours a symbolic meaning. The four colours used at the preparation of the katapestasma (the inner veil) of the Tabernacle, and later the inner curtain of the temple symbolised the four elements. This symbolic interpretation can be found in Philo and Josephus.
The same symbolic meaning seems to have been taken up also by the author of the Protevangelium Jacobi (2nd half of the 2nd c), who assigned the role of spinning the blue and the purple thread for the NEW katapetasma for the Holy of Holies to Mary (cf. Hebr 10:20, the katapetasma is the body of Christ).
This is why spinning (not reading) is the activity the Theotokos is engaged in while receiving the Annunciation in late Antique and (up until today) in Byzantino-Slav icons
(e.g. http://touregypt.net/featurestories/catherines2-13.htm
http://www.catholicstore.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=13359
etc. - see G. Gharib, Le icone di natale. Roma, 1995, esp. p. 149, another 12th c. Byz. icon at St Catherine's)
This interpretation can be found explicitly e.g. in the Marian homilies of Proclus of C'nople (6th c), recently edited and excellently commented on by N. Constas (Brill, 2003).
Through the "canonical" Marian cycles - which were practically the same in the West, too, until the early trecento (see e.g. the Santa Maria Maggiore Annunciation mosaic, Mary seated with a basket of wool)- this colour symbolism remained in use, even after the original symbolic meaning gradually faded out in the West.
Valete,
George
G. Gereby
associate professor
Ancient and Mediaeval Philosophy Department, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest
recurrent associate professor
Medieval Studies Dept.
Central European University
Budapest V.
Nador u. 9.
H-1051 Hungary
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Phone/Fax/a.m.: + 36.1.34 12 634
>>> [log in to unmask] 05. 12. 01. 3:06 >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Were not blue vestments used at Princess Diana's funeral, with some
explanation of the reason?
Elizabeth McLachlan, [log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Bugslag" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 8:23 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] Marian Blue?
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
> >
> > >Does anyone know how, when and why the color blue came to be so
> > intimately associated with the BVM, Titian's "Assumption"
notwithstanding?
> >
> > The answer could be something like the chicken and egg in terms of which
> > came first, general qualities or Mary's. That repository of
> > miscellaneous meaning, Brewer's Phrase and Fable (14th ed., 1989, in
> > hand), under Colours (p. 255-56), lists blue associations:
>
> Part of the problem with "colour symbolism" is that so much of it is
highly
> contextual. This is seldom pointed out by such sources as Brewer, however
useful
> they might generally be. George Ferguson's Signs and Symbols in Christian
Art, for
> example, claims that the colour red can symbolize both love and hate.
Presumably,
> not at the same time. As far as blue is concerned, at least part of the
reason that it
> became a "prestige" colour, like gold, in the later Middle Ages and
Renaissance was
> that the finest blue pigment for paint was ultramarine, made of crushed
lapis lazuli,
> which was mined principally, then as now, in Afghanistan, making it the
most
> expensive pigment, besides gold leaf, available in Europe. Surviving
contracts for
> paintings from the 14th and 15th century often specify both the quality
and the
> quantity of ultramarine to be used. Like gold, high-quality ultramarine
would have
> been recognized as materially valuable and thus suitable to a highly
valued subject.
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
>
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