medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I think you have an image of the Trinity rather than
Jesus, Mary and John. It's not unheard-of to have the
Holy Spirit represented as a woman. On the other hand,
the MED-ART people recently had a rather lengthy and
fruitful discussion of this and several members of the
list adduced images of saints with cruciform nimbi.
(Not supposed to be, but is.) Colum Hourihane's
(Princeton Index of Christian Art) response was the
fullest and most helpful as I recall.
Best,
MG
The central one is bearded and looks
> like Christ
God the Father
> to his left
His left or the viewer's left? If the figure is at the
bearded man's right, I'd argue for Christ who sits at
the right hand of the Father.
>They are all
> of similar size,
> frontal aspect, calm expression; each holds an
> identical chalice in his/her
> left hand, and has the right hand raised in a
> blessing gesture.
These are, to me, clear indications that you're
dealing with a Trinity image: equality (indicated by
size and identical attributes); ability to bless. I
have never in my life seen an image with a woman's
hand in a blessing gesture but I'm quite open to
correction here.
> art historian, so my opinion on dating is crude, but
> my best guess would be
> 14C-.
I'm not an art historian either, but I think your
guess is a good one. Perhaps even later than 14th c.
Best,
MG
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