Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.
Showing posts with label The Seven Joys of Mary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Seven Joys of Mary. Show all posts

Sunday 1 April 2012

The Seven Joys of Mary, Mother of Jesus

Pictures and italic text taken from Wikipedia (the free encyclopaedia) (unless otherwise accredited)



The Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary and the Virgin of the Rosary

The Seven Joys of the Virgin (or of Mary, the Mother of Jesus) is a popular devotion to events of the life of the Virgin Mary, arising from a trope of medieval devotional literature and art.

The Seven Joys were frequently depicted in mediaeval devotional literature and art. The Seven Joys are usually listed as:

The Annunciation

The Nativity of Jesus
The Adoration of the Magi
The Resurrection of Christ
The Ascension of Christ to Heaven
The Pentecost or Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Mary
The Coronation of the Virgin in Heaven


 
Raphael's Sistine Madonna painting (1513) at Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome 
is considered a key example of High Renaissance art
 
Alternative choices were made and might include the Visitation and the Finding in the Temple, as in the Franciscan Crown form of Rosary, which uses the Seven Joys, but omits the Ascension and Pentecost. Depiction in art of the Assumption of Mary may replace or be combined with the Coronation, especially from the 15th-Century onwards; by the 17th-Century, it is the norm. As with other sets of scenes, the different practical implications of depictions in different media such as painting, ivory miniature carving, liturgical drama and music led to different conventions by medium, as well as other factors such as geography and the influence of different religious orders. There is a matching set of seven Sorrows of the Virgin; both sets influenced the selection of scenes in depictions of the Life of the Virgin.

Originally, there were five joys of the Virgin
. Later, that number increased to seven, nine, and even fifteen in medieval literature, although seven remained the most common number, and others are rarely found in art. The five joys of Mary are mentioned in the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a source of Gawain's strength. The devotion was especially popular in pre-Reformation England. The French writer Antoine de la Sale completed a satire called Les Quinze Joies de Mariage ("The Fifteen Joys of Marriage") in about 1462, which partly parodied the form of Les Quinze Joies de Notre Dame ("The Fifteen Joys of Our Lady"), a popular litany.
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