Tuesdays, November 5 - December 10, 2024
Time: 6 pm - 8 pm ET
Admission: $170 / $150 (Patreon Members)

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time.

According to tradition, St Luke, the Apostle and Evangelist, created the very first picture ever rendered of the Virgin Mary. It would prove to be the beginning of a long, complex iconographical history. The mother of Jesus is by far the most important—and most frequently-depicted—of all Catholic saints. A global overview of images of the enthroned Blessed Mother will reveal that her appearance in art is not consistent; it changes according to the cultures of the artists and their audiences.

Mary appears in the Bible fewer than a dozen times. Scenes like the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, and Presentation have traditionally been popular sources of Christian imagery. Less well-known is her apocryphal tradition, which is full of obscure, forgotten stories, like her birth, and her marriage to Joseph. The Protoevangelium of James, for example, tells us that when she was six months old she could walk seven steps, and that she laughed and blushed at the Annunciation. We’ll study these texts and look at how they have inspired Marian works of art.

Other images of Mary are based not upon textual sources, but on sacred Catholic traditions. These are often scenes from the aftermath of her death, such as her bodily Assumption into Heaven and her Coronation as its queen. Because of her postmortem bodily Assumption, she left no physical remains on earth, but there are numerous second-class relics associated with her, including locks of hair, clothing, and even vials of milk.

The Virgin has also had a long history of miraculous apparitions. We’ll get to know stories like that of St Bernard of Clairvaux, who had ecstatic visions of drinking the Virgin’s breast milk. Then we’ll look at the numerous instances where she has appeared to ordinary people, as at Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe and Medjugorje. According to these experiences, what does Mary look like, and what message does she have for the people of Earth?

There have also been numerous miraculous paintings and sculptures of Mary that move, weep and speak, from the 17^th-century Our Lady of the Turning Eyes in Germany, to a statue of her in Italy that oozed blood in 2020.  We’ll consider what these phenomena can tell us about the Virgin and about her devotees.

In this course we will consider the full iconographic tradition of the Blessed Mother, including non-narrative, iconic depictions such as the Madonna of Humility, the Virgin in Glory, the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of Mercy, and the Mother of Sorrows. The cult of the Virgin is both ancient and timeless, and is still very much a living tradition in Catholic cultures worldwide.

Student participation will be encouraged. Do you have images of Mary in your home now? Were there pictures of her in the house you grew up in? What do they tell you about Mary? What do they tell you about your own family and culture? You will also be invited to share with us images of Mary in stained glass, paint, plaster or stone from your own hometown churches or travels.

Topics covered will include:

            --The Virgin Enthroned: A Global Art History of Mary      

            --Mary’s Life in Scripture, Apocrypha, and Art

            --Sacred Tradition: Mary’s Death, Assumption, and Coronation

            --Miraculous Images of the Virgin

            --Marian Apparitions and Messengers

            --Second Class Marian Relics and Reliquaries

Brenda Edgar is an Art Historian in Louisville, KY.  Her research interests include relics and reliquaries, medieval medical manuscripts and depictions of disease in medieval art, as well as the historical role of altered states of consciousness in the creation of art. 

In addition to her work for Morbid Anatomy, she teaches Art History courses at Indiana University Southeast. Her free monthly public talk series, “Art History Illustrated,” is presented at the Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany, Indiana.

Brenda is also a poet whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals.  Her first full-length book of poems, Dead Flowers, is being published in late 2023 through the Main Street Rag publishing company.

When she isn’t reading or writing, Brenda is a New York Times Crossword Puzzle addict as well as a yoga instructor.