The Visitation

Jean Bourdichon, The Visitation
From the Grandes Herures d'Anne de Bretagne
French (Tours), c. 1503-1508
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9474, fol. 36v

“During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said,

“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.

Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the 

Lord would be fulfilled.”

(Luke 1:39-45) Gospel for the Wednesday of the Fourth Week of vent, Weekday Cycle 1

 

Mary's journey to the home of her cousin, Elizabeth, figures largely in the story of the birth of Jesus.  It is sparked by Gabriel's response to Mary’s very sensible objection of her own virginity to his message about becoming a mother. 

“Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”

And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;

for nothing will be impossible for God.”  (Luke 1:34-37)

It is, apparently, in response to this miracle that Mary accepts what the angel has told her and says the fateful words: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”  (Luke 1:38)  It is at this point, with her acceptance, that is the moment of the Incarnation.

Mary’s first thought is about Elizabeth.  We may assume that, in addition to some concern about a late-life pregnancy for her cousin, Mary is also a bit desirous of proof of the things the angel had said to her.  Could it have been real?  Was it something she imagined?  Seeing Elizabeth, seeing her pregnant, could have been a key in her understanding of what had just happened to her.  For, if Elizabeth was in her sixth month, perhaps she really was carrying the Son of God herself. 

Consequently, Elizabeth’s reaction to Mary’s arrival held great importance for her.  Elizabeth’s joy and her words of ecstatic welcome suggested that Mary had not been having a dream, that the angel’s arrival and startling message were real, not a figment of her imagination.  It is, therefore, a very important moment in the story of Mary’s acceptance of her astonishing new role in life.  And it prompted from her the wonderful, exuberant canticle known as the Magnificat, recited daily during the Liturgy of the Hours at the Office of Vespers. 

“And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;
behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is from age to age
to those who fear him.
He has shown might with his arm,
dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.
He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones
but lifted up the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things;
the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped Israel his servant,
remembering his mercy,
according to his promise to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” (Luke 1:46-55)

The event of the Visitation was adopted as the second of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary and, as such, has been meditated on by Catholics for centuries.

Artists have depicted the meeting many times in different ways.  There are several iconographic traditions about which I have written extensively.  For convenience, I have summarized them below, with links to the relevant articles.

The Visitation

·       The Joyful Mysteries, The Second Joyful Mystery, The Visitation Part I – The Simple Greeting (click here)

·       The Joyful Mysteries, The Second Joyful Mystery, The Visitation Part II – The Kneeling Elizabeth (click here)

·       The Joyful Mysteries, The Second Joyful Mystery, The Visitation Part III – Acts of Blessing (click here)

·       The Joyful Mysteries, The Second Joyful Mystery, The Visitation Part IV – Visible Babies (click here)

·       The Joyful Mysteries, The Second Joyful Mystery, The Visitation Part V – The Magnificat (click here)

© M. Duffy, 2022

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

 

The Feast of All Saints

Albrecht Dürer, All Saints Adoring the Trinity
Known as The Landauer Altar
German, 1511
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

On November 1 the Church celebrates the feast of All Saints. On this day we honor all those who through their lives, lived in faith and hope and with charity, have achieved the Beatific Vision of God. Some of them are saints who have been identified and formally recognized by the Church, but most are simply men, women and children who have passed without formal recognition and whose names are now forgotten. They are our ancestors in faith exactly as they are our ancestors in flesh and blood. They enjoy the peace, the glory and the vision of God that we hope eventually to attain.

This day is especially set aside for us to remember these ancestors of ours, those whose names and deeds are honored and remembered officially and, more importantly, those who are not, the ordinary, everyday saints who lived their lives faithfully and peacefully, their heroic virtues hidden and unnoticed.  They are the multitude, noted in the vision of the Book of Revelation “which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.”¹

This multitude of people presents a problem for any artist who attempts to create a picture to illustrate this feast day.  How do you convey the sense of the countless numbers of people that form the assembly of all the saints?  Artists have been doing this since the early Middle Ages, and their attempts tend to fall into several iconographic types.

Arrangement in Tiers

This is the oldest and most long lasting type of iconography used to create images of All Saints.  Usually centering on a central figure (Christ in Majesty, God the Father, The Virgin Mary) or on a central scene (The Holy Trinity, the Coronation of the Virgin), the saints are arranged in neat tiers in hierarchical order, with the greatest saints, such as Saint John the Baptist or the Apostles, nearer to the central scene.  The image can be flat, with the saints piled up from bottom to top, or it can be circular.  The last is particularly suitable for the interior of domed structures.

Christ in Majesty With Angels and Saints
From a Sacramentary
French, c. 870
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 1141, fol. 5v-6r

Christ in Majesty and the Heavenly Jerusalem
French, c. 1080
Saint-Chef, Abbey Church

Giotto, Last Judgment
Italian, 1306
Padua, Scrovegni/Arena Chapel

The Celestial Harmony
From Vita et passio beati dionysii by Ivo de Santo Dionysio
French (Paris), 1317
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 2090, fol. 107v

Master of the Dominican Effigies, Christ and the Virgin Enthroned with Forty Saints
Leaf from a Choir Book
Italian (Florence), c. 1340
Washington, National Gallery of Art

Nardo di Cione, Paradise
Italian, c. 1355
Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Cappella Strozzi

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, The Court of Heaven
From a Gradual
Italian (Florence), c. 1371-1377
Cleveland, Museum of Art

Giusto de'Menabuoi, Paradise
Italian, c. 1375
Padua, Baptistery

Giovanni di Benedetto and Workshop. Coronation of the Virgin
From a Missal
Italian (Milan), c. 1385-1390
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 757, fol. 245v

Boucicaut Master, The Celestial Hierachy
From a De Proprietatibus rerum by Barthelemy L'Anglais
French (Paris),  c. 1400-1425
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 9141, fol. 23v

Paradise
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
Origin unknown, c. 1400-1450
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9585, fol. 47v

The Bedford Master, The Feast of All Saints
From the Bedford Hours
French (Paris), c. 1410-1430
London, British Library
MS Additional 18850, fol. 126r

Fra Angelico, The Court of Heaven (central predella panel)
Italian, c. 1423-1424
London, National Gallery
This panel must be viewed with the two panels which accompanied it to gain the whole picture.

Fra Angelico, The Virgin, the Apostles and Other Saints (left predella panel)
Italian, c. 1423-1424
London, National Gallery

and

Fra Angelico, Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs (right predella panel)
Italian, c. 1423-1424
London, National Gallery

Fra Angelico, The Last Judgment
Italian, c. 1431
Florence, Museo di San Marco

Hubert and Jan Van Eyck,  The Ghent Altarpiece, Interior
Flemish, c. 1432-1436
Ghent, St. Bavo Cathedral

Fra Angelico, The Coronation of the Virgin
Italian, c. 1434-1435
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

The Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity in the Presence of All the Saints
German, c. 1450-1475
Private Collection

Master of Guillebert de Mets, All Saints
From a Book of Hours
Flemish (Ghent), c. 1450-1455
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS 2, fol. 20v

Master Francois, The City of God
From De Civitate Dei by Saint Augustine of Hippo
French, c. 1466
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 19, fol. 232r

Filippo Lippi, The Coronation of the Virgin
Italian, c. 1467-1469
Spoleto, Cathedral

Francesco_Botticini, The Assumption of the Virgin Mary
Italian, c. 1475-1476
London, National Gallery

Jacques de Besancon, The Feast of All Saints
From a Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine
French (Paris), c. 1480-1490
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 245, fol. 156r

Erhard Schoen, The Great Rosary
German, c. 1515
London, British Museum

Tintoretto, The Coronation of Virgin Mary
Italian, c.1580
Venice, Palace of the Doge

Giovanni Lanfranco, Paradise
Italian, c. 1622-1638
Rome, Sant'Andrea della Valle (vault)

 

 

Johann Hulsmann, The Saint Sebastian Altarpiece
German, 1635
Cologne, Catholic Parish Church of Saint Gereon

William Dyce, Christ Enthroned with Saints
Design for a fresco for All Saints Church,
Margaret Street, London
English, 1849
London, Victoria and Albert Museum

A Group Picture Seen Head On

Another way in which artists imagined all the saints was as a group of individuals seen head on.  This, of course, resulted in clear images of only the first few rows of figures.  Beyond them other saints are indicated only as fragmentary rows of haloes, or small fragments of heads, without individuality.  This was, obviously not a very satisfactory way of representing all the saints.  Probably for this reason, it did not have a very long life as a way of handling the subject.   

The Boucicaut Master, All Saints
From a Book of Hours
French (Paris), c. 1400-1425
London, British Library
MS Additional 16997, fol. 137r

The Boucicaut Master, All Saints
From a Book of Hours
French (Paris), c. 1415-1420
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS 22, fol. 257r

Christ Surrounded by Saints
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
Origin unknown, c. 1425-1450
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9586, fol. 43v 

The Osservanza Master, The Virgin and All Saints
Cutting from a Choirbook
Italian (Siena), c. 1430-1440
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection

The Master of Jouvenel des Ursins and Workshop, The Coronation of the Virgin
From the Hours of Jeanne de France
French (Angers), c. 1452
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition latine 3244, fol. 118r

Willem Vrelant, All Saints
From the Arenberg Hours
Flemish, Early 1460s
Los Angeles, J.Paul Getty Museum
MS Ludwig IX 8, fol. 179r

The Chief Associate of Master Francois, The Hierarchy of Saints
From a Book of Hours
French (Paris), c. 1471-1485
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 815, fol. 33r

The Master of the Exchevainage and Workshop, The Court of Heaven
From a City of God by Saint Augustine of Hippo
French (Paris), c. 1475-1500
Paris, Biblioitheque national de France
Francais 28, fol. 273v

The Master of Mary of Burgundy, A Procession of All Saints
From the Hours of Mary of Burgundy
Flemish, c. 1480
Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett
MS 78 B 12, fol. 30v

Jean Poyer, All Saints--Male and Female
From Hours of Henry VIII
French (Tours), c. 1495-1505
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS H 8, fol. 192v

The Master of the Older Prayer Book of Maximilian I, All Saints
From the Breviary of Eleanor of Portugal
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1495-1515
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 52, fol. 532v

The Master of James IV of Scotland, All Saints
From the Spinola Hours
Flemish (Ghent), c. 1510-1520
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS Ludwig IX 18, fol. 257v

The Master of Claude de France, All Saints
From the Prayer Book of Claude de France
French (Tours), c. 1515-1520
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 1166, fol. 48v-49r

Group Seen from Behind

One of the other ways in which artists tried to present all the saints was by viewing the mass of figures from behind.  Like the groups seen head on, this is not an ideal way of showing all the figures and, further, makes it virtually impossible to provide any of the figures with identifying attributes.  However, the resulting pictures are, in their way, rather amusing.  They also are primarily produced by only one group of workshops, that of Jean Fouquet and his successors.

Jean Fouquet. The Court of Heaven

From the Hours of Etienne Chevalier

French (Tours), c.1420

Chantilly, Musée Condé

MS 71, fol 27r

Jean Colombe Workshop, All Saints
From a Book of Hours
French (Bourges), c. 1465-1470
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 248, fol. 127r

Jean Colombe. Paradise
From the Tres Riches Heures du Jean Duc de Berry
French, c. 1485-1489
Chantilly, Musée Condé
MS 65, fol. 126r

The Workshop of the Master of the First Prayer Book of Maximilian I, All Saints
From the Spinola Hours
Flemish, c. 1510-1520
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS Ludwig IX 18, fol. 270v

The Vortex Arrangement

All these iconographic types were primarily popular during the early to high Middle Ages and early Renaissance.  Only the tiered arrangement was in continuous use into later periods.  One other arrangement developed during the late Renaissance and continued for some time.  This is what I call the Vortex Arrangement.  In this type images of the saints are arranged in a swirling pattern, focused on some important image (God the Father, the Name of Jesus, the Holy Trinity, etc.) as if drawn in toward it by centripetal force. 

Hieronymus Bosch, Ascent of the Blessed to Paradise
Dutch, c. 1510
Venice, Palazzo Ducale

Jesus, Mary and All the Saints Interceding with God the Father
German, c. 1540
 Kassel, Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe

Cornelis Cort, The Triumph of the Holy Trinity
Dutch, c. 1550
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

El Greco, Adoration of the Name of Jesus
Greco-Spanish, 1578-1579
El Escorial, Monastery of San Lorenzo, Chapter House

Carlo Saraceni, Paradise
Italian, c. 1598
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Andrea Michieli, The Court of Heaven
Italian, c. 1600
Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery

The Holy Trinity Adored by Saints
French, 18th Century
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Jan Jakub, The Worship of the Trinity by All the Saints
Czech, c. 1718-1723
Ossegg,  Abbey of the Assumption

Pierre Jollain, The Assumption of the Virgin
French, 1752
Barnard Castle, County Durham (UK), The Bowes Museum

Franz Anton Maulbertsch, The Apotheosis of Hungarian Saints
Austrian, c.  1772-1773
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Triumph of Religion
Italian, c. 1775-1800
Paris, Musée du Louvre

© M. Duffy, 2017.  Selected images updated 2022.

1.  Revelation 7:9

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.