https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_of_the_Rocks

A friend of mine and I were discussing the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, possibly because the Catholic Church just celebrated the Feast of the Assumption. She brought up these paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, the ultimate Italian Renaissance artist, and thinker about All the Things.

The paintings were done for a Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception and their chapel. The Wikipedia article agreed with my art historian friend’s comments, so if you want the saga of the two paintings, it’s there.

My friend was interested in the actual difficulty of doing a painting of such an event. Catholics believe that Mary was preserved from the stain of original sin from the moment of her conception. The Virgin Birth which occasionally gets mixed up with this belief is the idea that Jesus Christ did not have a human father, that Mary was a virgin who conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I can’t discuss the technical details of the paintings or even much about the symbolism of the colors. What struck me forcefully was the golden girdle or scarf that Mary is wearing, that is close to the center of the painting. I was also surprised that Mary has her right hand on John the Baptist’s body but her left hand is simply spread out, a foot above head of the baby Jesus.

I think Mary’s gold scarf is meant to emphasize the glory and purity of her womb. When the angel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of the Redeemer, he told her that she was “full of grace”. This is one of the primary reasons for believing in the Immaculate Conception. The angel also told her that she could believe in what he was saying because her kinswoman Elizabeth, believed to barren, was going to have a baby. That would be John the Baptist, on whom, in this painting, Mary is resting her hand.

It struck me that when the angel made his announcement, he pointed backward to Mary’s immaculate conception and forward to the Virgin Birth at the same time.

I’m still thinking about these two paintings …

Leonardo was of course a Catholic though he never said much about it, and a scientist of his times.