medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Sunday, September 10, 2006, at 8:01 pm, Jim Bugslag wrote:
> Well, if we go back to Gyorgy's Protoevangelium, Mary was married
> at puberty,
> when they kicked her out of the Temple. That is usually taken to
> mean 12 or 13
> years old -- "puella" certainly fits that, but we need not dwell, I
> think, on the "little
> girl" sense of the word. She was certainly "nubile". I love those
> late medieval
> "Annaselbdritt" images of St Anne, with a very young Mary on her
> lap, and the
> Christ Child on *her* lap.
In Italian, they're called 'Anna metterza' ('Anne placed third'). And I
like them even when the Mary on A.'s lap doesn't seem all that young, as
in this by Masaccio in the Uffizi in Florence:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Masaccio_028.jpg
In the French Alps they seem to use "metterza" also:
http://web.msh-alpes.prd.fr/prealp/valsesia5.htm
Note the strong family likeness, seen also in this late
fourteenth-century example from Velemer in Hungary:
http://www.hung-art.hu/supporte/viewer/z.html
(It's less obvious in the Masaccio example but still there: compare the
noses of all three of the central figures).
Best again,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|