The Vase in Paintings of the Annunciation, a Polyvalent Symbol of the Virgin Mary

This article tries to highlight the deep doctrinal meanings underlying the vase that is often included in artistic depictions of the Annunciation. This apparently banal everyday object has been deliberately placed there in a prominent position to symbolize the Virgin Mary in her condition as the vir...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Salvador González, José María
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/88393
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/88393
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:7(091)
27‑312.47
Mariology
Marian iconography
Mary’s divine motherhood
Annunciation
Theological sources
Doctrinal symbol
Historia del Arte
5506.02 Historia del Arte
Descripción
Sumario:This article tries to highlight the deep doctrinal meanings underlying the vase that is often included in artistic depictions of the Annunciation. This apparently banal everyday object has been deliberately placed there in a prominent position to symbolize the Virgin Mary in her condition as the virginal mother of God the Son, and the bearer of all virtues to the highest degree. As methodological resources to justify our iconographic interpretations of that symbol in these images, our study is based on the analysis of texts by several Church Fathers and medieval theologians, as well as numerous liturgical hymns, which for more than a millennium agreed to designate the Virgin Mary as a “vase”, “vessel”, and other types of containers. Thus, this ancient patristic, theological and hymnographic tradition legitimizes our iconographic interpretation of the “vase” included in fifteen paintings of the Annunciation produced by artists from Italy, Flanders and Spain during the 14th and 15th centuries.</jats:p>