A bit off the subject of the Dormition - but there is an interesting
depiction of the Virgin in association with the Trinity in the top panels
of the main lights in the main east window at Gresford in north Wales. The
three central panels are the Father (standard old-man-with-beard), the Son
(with the BVM as a diminutive figure on his lap) and the Holy spirit as a
bearded male figure bearing a dove. Either side of this are 2 more
depictions of the BVM - one with lily and palm, one at the Annunciation
with a dove and a sunbeam - and the Archangel Gabriel and St John the
Evangelist.
One could meditate on this one for hours and hours! Superficially it looks
as though the BVM is being presented as a 4th member of the Trinity - but I
think the presence of St John suggests that it's a complex meditation on
the Incarnation and Mary's relationship with the individual persons of the
Trinity.
The iconographical arrangement of the whole window is interesting - Tree of
Jesse in the top tracery, this Trinity/BVM sequence at the top of the main
lights, then a Te Deum window below. Much is unfortunately Victorian
reconstruction but they do seem (unusually) to have followed the
iconographic arrangement of the original sequences.
Gresford was virtually rebuilt under the influence of the remarkable
Margaret Beaufort and has a lot of powerful representations of the BVM, St
Anne and female saints. No Carthusian connections in the area that I know
of and it isn't particularly near any cistercian houses either.
Maddy
Dr Madeleine Gray
Department of Humanities and Science
UWCN
'Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought'
Anne Marshall
<[log in to unmask]> To: "[log in to unmask]"
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medieval-religion-request@mail cc:
base.ac.uk Subject: Dormition of the Virgin with
Trinity, plus a note
03/10/00 12:22 AM
Please respond to
medieval-religion
They're not common, but I do know of several more Coronations of the Virgin
by the Trinity, in manuscript painting and in wall painting. I suspect
there may be a Carthusian connection for some of them. Certainly Marian
veneration didn't get much higher than this.
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