Happy Birthday, Estelanui!
*dashes in just in time to wish Estelanui a happy birthday*
Happy Birthday, dear Francesca! :-)
I hope you are having an enjoyable day full of pleasant happenings. *hugs*
And look - those lovely ladies have come, bearing gifts for you:
( Read more... )
Happy Birthday, dear Francesca! :-)
I hope you are having an enjoyable day full of pleasant happenings. *hugs*
And look - those lovely ladies have come, bearing gifts for you:
( Read more... )
I’m sorry for the delay in replying to your post but I was outside for the weekend and then I needed the time to read your link about Matres and Matrones.
What an interesting subject! I didn’t know this celtic expression of the triple goddess before your post.
I searched this subject in the Italian sites but there are few links. The references to Matres and Matrones are very rare in the north of Italy along with clear evidence of the celtic culture and art. In this region the Roman domination soon encompassed all the old culture merging the precedent goddesses and traditions in the Roman civilization. for the Romans the Matres (or Matrones) were shipped in the forest or near small rivers as protectors of nature fertility, and they were often close to Epona cult (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epona)
There is a votive inscription in a town not far from my home about one altar dedication to the three Matres, but I didn’t find images of the Matrones available in my region.
It seems in the north of Italy the Roman ability to encompass the conquered cultures and then the Catholic religion wiped out the celtic images of the Matres and Matrones.
I think they can be found in the many small churches in the country near the towns dedicated to Mary as the Annunciation Virgin, or as Mother of Jesus, or as Crone under the cross. In front to my house there is a small Marian oratory built in XII century in which generations of females had gone and still go to ask for fertility or a good labour.
The worship of Matres and Matrones seems different from the Madonna one, but the needs of the worshippers are not different at all.
You wrote: they still are magical, strong places, filled with an old numinous spirit..
I wish I were close to one of these places to feel the ancient energy of so many believer generations.
Your BD gift was one of the more dear and valued.
Thank to you and to the old and news Matres and Matrones.
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Yes, this votive altar is especailly beautiful; it is placed in a huge room at the Landesmuseum and the three goddesses literally seem to bless the entire room. There are other Matrons altars too, which look more rural and simple. But they all exude a very powerful energy.
I didn't know of the Matrons cult either, before I lived in the Rhineland region. It's a very special thing of this area, I mean, in that high concentration of remaining altars. Cologne and Bonn have been the centres of Matrons worship. Under the Minster of Bonn the archaeologists found many votive altars and oblations, all dedicated to the Matrons.
Thanks for the Epona link. I loved the depiction with the two horses by her side very much.
The worship of Matres and Matrones seems different from the Madonna one, but the needs of the worshippers are not different at all.
You are so right. We will never know how the old rites and worship looked like, but the things worshippers prayed for haven't changed much.
I wish I were close to one of these places to feel the ancient energy of so many believer generations.
If you ever happen to come to my part of Germany, I will be more than happy to visit those sites with you. :-)
I managed to find a short video that gives a few glimpses of one of the cult sites I visited: Pesch, which must have been a rather big Matrons sanctuary, consisting of several stone buildings and a well. I think it is good that this place is a bit hidden, so only hikers and people who really want to visit the Matrons do find it. The video's commentary is in German, but the video gives a bit of an impression of the place.
http://www.myvideo.de/watch/2838454/Matronen_von_Pesch
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I am butting in to say that I did read 'The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future' by Riane Eisler, which you recommended in a post in early January.
Whiteling's post about the Matronae still extant in Germany (and under a minster!) brought its thesis all back to me, about the pre-male-dominated religion and social structure of what became Europe, back in the Neolithic age. I loved her discussion of how it kept re-emerging throughout Western history, including how it kept cropping up in the Church, mostly unnoted in a conscious way (or it would have been trounced).
You mentioned that while in the church arose the cult of the Madonna, the Matronae seemed unrepresented. I know there are supposed to be three, but perhaps some of the religious feeling suppressed when the three were suppressed came out in the cult of St. Anne and the Virgin as a girl? Then you always see and older woman and a young woman or girl, widely venerated as a pair and depicted in painting after painting, as if they were themselves agents and revealers of the divine. And often Jesus is included as a baby. I even found a site that calls that composition, iconographically, a "Triple Anne":
http://www.museothyssen.org/thyssen_ing/coleccion/obras_ficha_texto1010.html
Anne, the girl Virgin and the infant Christ representing the three ages. If Jesus himself were thought of as a revealer of a non-patriarchal God, he could count as one of the three feminine divine figures. It's a stretch, but a thoughtfully made one, lol.
Some show St. Anne standing to one side, the Virgin holding the infant. But some have them on each other's laps.
Here's the Leonardo one that's so famous: hanging on to a toddler Jesus, the Virgin, a grown woman, is sitting on her mother Anne's lap. I love the way each is looking at her child with such love.
http://www.myvietnamart.com/files/1995776/uploaded/DaVin009.jpg
Here's a very large version of a preliminary sketch by Da Vinci (click to open further), also a favourite and also a multi-lap "Triple Anne", but with child-John the Baptist included:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Leonardo_-_St._Anne_cartoon-alternative-downsampled.jpg
Here's another one of the Virgin holding Jesus, the both of them on St. Anne's lap, in a much more iconic-like composition by Masolino and Masaccio:
http://www.aiwaz.net/uploads/gallery/madonna-and-child-with-saint-anne-1695-mid.jpg
Here's a lap composition from Castile, 16th cent. (unknown sculptor):
http://museocerralbo.mcu.es/ing/coleccion/art/fotos/ESCULTURA/178-233_ESC02_TripleSantaAn.jpg
The piece de resistance is this 16th cent. sculpture, not a Triple Anne, and not a multi-lap composition, but one that shows Anne and the Virgin seated side by side (Jesus on Mary's lap), with "Emerentia", the mother of Anne, standing above and behind them. It's credited to The Urban Master of Hildesheim:
http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/december2001/emerentia.jpg
(cont'd)
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As a scripture-only protestant (before I became a protestant), I knew nothing of St. Anne (much less her mother!), I remember seeing paintings called 'St. Anne and the Virgin', and 'The Virgin and Child with St. Anne', but I always thought 'Anne' was supposed to be 'Anna', the holy woman from the gospel of Luke, who is ecstatic over the infant Jesus outside the temple after his circumcision. It was not until 1987, when I was in the Freiburg area to study on a [Lutheran] seminary scholarship, that I learned that Mary had a mother, known by name, Anne, and that there was even a big feast day for her. Protestant churches don't give weight to tradition that is not explicitly grounded in the scriptural texts. Looking 'St. Anne' up, I found that while Anne was unknown in scripture, she had been mentioned by name as early as the second century.
It makes sense that Christians would want to know who Mary was and about her family background, since she was the mother of Jesus. But what I see in the paintings and sculptures goes beyond their being best guesses at "family portraits". They function as icons and objects of religious veneration and devotion. And how interesting that they are icons featuring two, even three women, of different ages, all related, surrounded by a nimbus of divinity or near-divinity, as well as the youngest of the group: the holy child.
Don't mind me. It's cold here, I have the day off, and I got on an "art roll". :)
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The sculture of Mary, Anna and "Emerentia" is really stunning.
There are another ‘female’ episode in Jesus’s family: Mary Virgin visitation to St. Elizabeth in the Gospel of Luke 1:39-56
by Giotto
http://www.mystudios.com/gallery/giotto/15a.html
or by Cristoforo Caselli
http://www.cattedrale.parma.it/img/crono-catt/A23b-pag155.jpg
or by Jacopo Carrucci
http://www.po-net.prato.it/artestoria/fuori/htm/visit.htm
more is coming....
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