Pages

Friday, May 31, 2024

The Joyful Mysteries, The Second Joyful Mystery, The Visitation Part I – The Simple Greeting

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

“In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.
But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years.
Once when he was serving as priest in his division’s turn before God,
according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense.
Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense.
Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him.
But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John.
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
for he will be great in the sight of [the] Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink.  He will be filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb,
and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.
He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.”
Then Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
And the angel said to him in reply, “I am Gabriel, who stand before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news.
But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.”
Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and were amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary.
But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was gesturing to them but remained mute.
Then, when his days of ministry were completed, he went home.
After this time his wife Elizabeth conceived, and she went into seclusion for five months, saying,
“So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others.”

Master of the Trinity, Annunciation to Zechariah
From Petites heures de Jean de Berry
French (Bourges), c. 1385-1390
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 18014, fol. 203r


Then follows the story of the Annunciation to Mary that she will become the mother of Jesus.  This Annunciation is also made by Gabriel, who concludes his announcement with news of Elizabeth. 

Annunciation
From the Livre d’images de Madame Marie
Flemish (Hainaut), c. 1275-1300
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition francaise 16251, fol. 20v


“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.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

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.”

Mary responds with the Magnificat and this portion of the Gospel concludes:

“Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.”

Luke I: 5-25, 36-56


So much emphasis has been placed over the centuries on the Annunciation portion of the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, that the beauty and significance of the encounter of the near-term Elizabeth and the newly pregnant Mary has often been overlooked.  But, I suggest that they are actually essential to each other for us to gain an insight into what is being said.  Artists too have been affected by the predominance of the Annunciation part of the story.   While there are thousands and thousands of images of the Annunciation, the number of images of the Visitation, while numerous, are far less frequent. 

However, as we can see from the edited quotation above, the two stories are deeply interwoven.  Among other things:  Mary is Elizabeth’s relative (the precise degree of relationship is not specified, but has traditionally been described as cousins); like other holy women of the past (Sarah, wife of Abraham, for instance) Elizabeth is described as both barren and old; Gabriel, the same angel who brings the surprising request to Mary, announces the birth of a son to a doubting Zechariah;  after Zechariah returns home, Elizabeth finally conceives (by natural means in spite of her age and former barren condition); she then goes into seclusion for five months. 



Luke’s account of the Annunciation begins “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth” (Luke 1:26).  I (and I will bet most people who read this part of the Gospel in connection with the Annunciation itself) have always assumed that the six months referred to equates to six months from the beginning of the year, which in the Hebrew reckoning of time would amount to late March or early April, six months from the period of the High Holy Days which fall in late September or early October.  However, read together with the story of the birth of John the Baptist, it clearly refers to the timing of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.  It is her sixth month that is being referred to, not the calendar. 

Master Francois, The Visitation
From a Book of Hours
French (Paris), c.1460-1470
London, British Library
MS Egerton 2045, fol. 62v

This places Mary’s pregnancy in a slightly different setting, tying the two women and their babies together more closely, because the one is timed to the other.  The Gospel also says that, having heard from Gabriel about Elizabeth’s condition, Mary quickly went to her, traveling from Galilee to Judea.  When she arrived Elizabeth’s baby jumped for joy within her, causing her to proclaim her own feelings and understanding of what has happened to her younger relative. 

Mary, we are told, remained there for three months, or until the birth of John the Baptist.  She then returns home, now three months pregnant herself, to face the confusion of Joseph, her betrothed, and then her marriage, the journey to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus. 


The Pictorial Record

The meeting between the two women is a moment of great joy and exaltation.  However, this is only intermittently obvious in the pictorial record, as we will see.  In my initial preparatory survey for this essay I collected just about 100 pictures of the Visitation over a period spanning the eleventh to the twentieth centuries from the sources that are available currently. Over the ensuing seven years the number of images available online has grown exponentially and I have now found several hundred.  Therefore, I have revised this essay to include many of my new finds.  

Among the thousands of images I found there are several themes which can be identified and I have split the commentary up along those lines, so as not to overwhelm.  However, one theme is more dominant than the others and, thus, has pride of place.  This is what I call “The Simple Greeting”, that is where Elizabeth welcomes Mary in a simple and straightforward manner. 

The earliest image of this type, which is also the earliest images I was able to collect, comes from what is colloquially known as "the Dark Ages".  This is that unsettled period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire, generally reckoned as 475, and the rise of the Carolingian Empire in the late eighth century.  It comes from the area in northern Italy that was dominated first by the Goths and then by the more recently arrived Lombards.  It shows the almost abstract quality of some barbarian art, but is effective in reminding the viewer of the event it illustrates.


*The Visitation
From the Altar of Duke Ratchis
Pre-Romanesque, c. 739-744
Cividale del Friuli, Cathedral, Christian Museum and Treasury


Other regions of Europe, however, were not so thoroughly dominated by barbarian influence in the visual arts.  In those regions classical ideas of beauty still held sway, mediated through the forms of Byzantine art that had developed in late Antiquity.




*The Annunciation and the Visitation
Ivory Book cover (detail)
Byzantine, 11th Century
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
MS Clm 6832, cover


And, from the southern region of Italy, a location that, though independent of the Byzantine Empire nevertheless was heavily influenced by the large Byzantine presence in the region.
  


Ivory plaque with the Visitation
Italian, c. 1001-1200
Salerno, Museo Diocesano San Matteo



The influence of Byzantine style and iconography was felt as far away as the land of the Franks, which we now know as France.


*The Visitation, Capital
French, c. 1050
Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, Fleury Abbey




Another, area of significant, lingering Byzantine influence was Palestine, in spite of the encroachment of Muslim states in Syria and what is today Turkey. 



Visitation
From the Melisande Psalter
Palestine (Jerusalem), c. 1131-1143
London, British Library
MS Egerton 1139, fol. 1v



The influence of the simple Byzantine style greeting motif continues through the twelfth century.  

The Visitation
Portion of the Typanum
French, 1130s
Vezelay, Basilica of St. Mary Magdalen 




Bonannus, The Visitation
Italian, 1187
Pisa, Church of Santa Maria Assunta




The Visitation
from a Picture Bible
French (Saint-Omer, Abbey of St. Bertin), c.1190-1200
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 5, fol. 10v




* The Visitation
From the Munich Golden Psalter
English (Oxford), c. 1190-1200
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
MS Clm 835, fol. 21v



*The Visitation
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
French (Avignon), c. 1300-1350
Rome, Biblioteca Corsiniana
MS 55.K.2 (Rossi 17), fol. 20r



In the early 13th century, however, the somewhat stiff Byzantine stile merges with a new, more classically aware strain that flows from the portals of Reims Cathedral to the doors of the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral and beyond.   



+The Visitation
French, c. 1211-1225
Reims, Cathedral



It is this image most of us recognize as “the Visitation”, two women, one younger than the other, meeting at the center of the picture with more or less formality.  They may embrace, or kiss, or simply hold each other by the hand.



The Visitation
French, c.1252
Chartres, Cathedral



Nicola Pisano, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1265-1268
Siena, Cathedral



The Visitation
Italian, c. 1300-1350
Orvieto, Cathedral




+Giotto, The Visitation
Italian, 1306
Padua, Scrovegni/Arena Chapel





+Giotto and Assistants, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1315-1320
Assisi, Basilica of San Francesco




*Andrea de Jacopo d'Ognabene, The Annunciation and the Visitation
From the Silver Altar of Saint James
Italian, After 1316
Pistoia, Cathedral




*Jean Pucelle, The Visitation
From the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, Queen of France
French (Paris), c. 1324-1328
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters
Acc.# 54.1.2, fol. 16r





Ivory plaque, The Visitation
North French (Meuse Valley), c.1325-1350
New  York, Metropolitan Museum of Art






Andrea Pisano, The Visitation
Italian, 1330
Florence, Baptistery



* The Visitation
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
French (Alsace), c. 1370-1380
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 511, fol. 48r
In this delightful little painting the two women pat each other on the chin, a time-honored sign of affection.




Melchior Broederlam, The Visitation
Panel from a Polyptych Altarpiece
Flemish, c. 1393-1399
Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts




* The Visitation
Spanish, 15th Century
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado





*The Boucicaut Master, The Visitation
From the Hours of Marechal de Boucicaut
French (Paris), c. 1405-1408
Paris, Musée Jacquemart-Andre





Workshop of the Boucicaut Master, The Visitation
from a Book of Hours
French (Paris), c. 1415-1425
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
MS M 1000, fol.60r





* The Visitation
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
German (Middle Rhine), c. 1420
New York, New York Public Library
MS Spencer 15, fol. 48c
The words above the picture read "Secundum gaudium" or "Second Joy", a reference to the Visitation as the second Joyful Mystery of the rosary.




+Paolo Schiavo, The Visitation
Italian, Late 1420s-Early 1430s
Philadelphia, Museum of Art



* Attributed to Giovanni Francesco da Rimini, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1425-1450
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures





+Fra Angelico, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1433-1434
Cortona, Museo Diocesano




* Master of the Heisterbacher Altar (with Stefan Lochner), The Visitation
German, c. 1440
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Staatsgalerie in der Neuen Residenz Bamberg





*Stained Glass Window Fragment, The Visitation
German, 1444
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art





* Dirk Bouts, The Visitation
From the Life of the Virgin Altarpiece
Flemish, c. 1445
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado








+Michele Giambono, The Visitation
Italian, c.1451
Venice, Basilica di San Marco, Mascoli Chapel




*Master of the Freising Visitation, The Visitation
_German, Late 15th Century
Augsburg, Cathedral




*Adriaen van Wesel, The Visitation
Dutch, c. 1475-1477
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum




* The Visitation
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
German (Bavarian), c. 1475-1500
Frankfurt, Universitaetsbibliothek
MS germ. qu. 100, fol. 77r



*Workshop of Burkhard Engelberg, The Visitation
German, 1486 
Augsburg, Cathedral Cloister




School of Avignon, The Visitation
French, c. 1497-1508
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures




*Hans Suess von Kulmbach, The Visitation
German, c. 1500-1525
Bamberg, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Staatsgalerie in der Neuen Residenz Bamberg





*Master of the Oberschoenenfelder Altar, The Visitation
German, c. 1500
OttobeurenBayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Staatsgalerie in der Benediktinerabtei Ottobeuren




 With varying amounts of narrative detail included in the images, and a greater number of subsidiary figures, this is the strain that has dominated the largest number of images of the Visitation up through the mid-twentieth century. Among the subsidiary figures one can find:  Zechariah, of course, but also, Joseph, assorted saints, Old Testament prophets, New Testament evangelists, serving maids and men, onlookers from different eras, donors, angels and allegorical figures, as well as, in some paintings, figures who seem to be totally unrelated to the scene.



*Master of the Marienleben Altar, The Visitation with Johann von Hirtz
German, c. 1470-1480
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek




+Domenico Ghirlandaio, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1486-1490
Florence, Church of Santa Maria Novella, Tornabuoni Chapel





+Piero di Cosimo, The Visitation with Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony Abbot
Italian, c.1489-1490
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection





Attributed to Alexander-Bening, The Visitation
Single Leaf from a Book of Hours
Flemish, c.1490
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
MS G 10 recto




* Juan de Segovia, The Visitation
Spanish, c. 1490-1500
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado





Jean Poyer, The Visitation
from Hours of Henry VIII
French (Tours), c. 1495-1505
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
MS H 8, fol.40v




*Maestro de la Sisla, The Visitation
Spanish, c. 1500
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado





+Jean Bourdichon, The Visitation
From the Hours of Frederic d'Aragon
French (Tours), c. 1501-1504
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 10532, fol. 120v






+Vittore Carpaccio, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1504-1506
Venice, Galleria Franchetti, Ca d'oro






+Mariotto Albertinelli, The Visitation
Italian, 1503
Florence, Gallerie degli' Uffizi





+Master MS, The Visitation
Hungarian, 1506
Budapest, Magyar Nemzeti Galeria





Master of the Ango Hours, The Visitation
from a Prayer Book
French (Rouen), c. 1515-1525
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS NAL 83, fol. 23v




*Lorenzo Bregno, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1515
Treviso, Cathedral





+Giulio Romano and Giovanni Francesco Penni from a Design by Raphael. The Visitation
Italian, c.1517
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado





Sebastiano del Piombo, Visitation
Italian, 1521
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures





*Adriaen Isenbrant, The Visitation
Flemish, After 1521
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art




*Giovanni della Robbia, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1525
Pistoia, Ospedale del Ceppo





+Jacopo Pontormo, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1528-1529
Carmignano, Church of San Michele




*Juan Correa de Vivar, The Visitation
Spanish, c. 1530-1540
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures





*Raffaello da Montlupo, The Visitation
Italian, 1533
Loreto, Basilica of the Holy House





*Master of the Legend of Saint Crispin, The Visitation
German, c. 1534
Regensburg, Historisches Museum





Francesco Salviati, The Visitation
Italian, 1538
Rome, Oratory of San Giovanni Decollato





Giulio Clovio, The Visitation and the Meeting of Justice and Peace
from the Farnese Hours
Italian, 1546
New  York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 69, fol.17v-18r





*Michiel Coxie, The Visitation
Flemish, Before 1550
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado





Tintoretto, The Visitation
Italian, c.1549
Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale






Pellegrino Tebaldi, The Visitation with Saints Joseph and Jerome
Italian, c. 1550-1560
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum





Federico Barocci, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1583-1586
Rome, Church of Santa Maria in Vallicella





Tintoretto, The Visitation
Italian, c.1588
Venice, Scuola di San Rocco






+
+El Greco, The Visitation
Greco-Spanish, c. 1610-1613
Washington, Dumbarton Oaks Collection






+Peter Paul Rubens, The Visitation
Flemish, c. 1611-1613
London, The Courtauld Gallery





*Juan del Castillo, The Visitation
Spanish, c. 1630-1640
Saint Petersburg, State  Hermitage Museum




*Alessandro Turchi, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1631-1635
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado






Guercino, The Visitation
Italian, 1632
Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts




*Jacques Callot, The Visitation
From Les Images de Tous Les Saincts et Saintes de l'Annee
French, 1636
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Drawings and Prints







*Jan Lievens, The Visitation
Dutch, c. 1638-1640
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures




*Jacob Jordaens, The Visitation
Flemish, 1642
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures





*Tobias Pock, The Visitation
German, c. 1645
Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister





+The LeNain Brothers (Mathieu and Antoine), The Visitation
French, c.1650
Saint-Denis de Pile, Church of Saint Denis




*David Teniers the Younger, The Visitation
Flemish, c. 1650-1690
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek







Michel Corneille, the Elder, The Visitation
French, c.1650
Blois, Musédes Beaux-Arts




David Teniers, The Visitation
Dutch, c.1651-1660
Glasgow, Museums Resource Center




+Willem van Herp the Elder, The Visitation
Flemish, 1659
Private Collection




*Pierre Puget, The Visitation
French, 1659
Aix-en-Provence, Musée Granet




*Jose Moreno, The Visitation
Spanish, c. 1662
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado






Luca Giordano, The Visitation
Italian, c,1670
London, Guildhall Art Gallery






*Jeronimo Antonio Ezquerra, The Visitation
Spanish, c. 1700
Malaga, Museo Carmen Thyssen






*Van der Werff, The Visitation
Dutch, 1708
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek





*Nicolas Vleighels, The Visitation
French, 1709
Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum





+Michelangelo Unterberger, The Visitation
Austrian, c.1740
Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts




*Workshop of Johann Baptist Zimmermann, The Visitation
German, 1741
Dietramszell, Church of the Assumption







+Ubaldo Gandolfi, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1767
Private Collection





*Louis-Jean-Francois LaGrenee, The Visitation
French, 1781
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado





Toward the middle of the nineteenth century the tendency to overpopulate the scene diminished and artists once more focused on the simple meeting of two women, each the mother of a very special son.



Antonio Canova, The Visitation
Italian, c. 1821-1822
Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia





+Carl Heinrich Bloch, The Visitation
Danish, 1865-1879
Frederiksborg, Palace Chapel







+James Tissot, The Visitation
French, 1886-1894
New York, Brooklyn Museum












Maurice Denis, The Visitation
French, 1894
Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum






Odilon Redon, The Visitation
French, c.1900
Paris, Musée d'Orsay





Mario Toppi, The Visitation
Italian, Before 1953
Cleveland, Museum of Art



By the mid-twentieth century attention was once again firmly focused on the figures of Mary and Elizabeth.



The Visitation
Austrian, 1960
Augsburg, Church of Saint John Bosco


This includes an image that doesn't really fit among the five categories I have discerned, but which, in its delicate simplicity sums up the relationship of Mary and Elizabeth and underlines their status as "blessed among women" is the image below by the English artist Robert Anning Bell.  Entitled, Mary in the House of Elizabeth, it depicts the two expectant mothers sitting side by side.  Elizabeth is reading what looks like a small prayer book, while Mary sews.  


+Robert Anning Bell, Mary in the House of Elizabeth
English, 1917
London, Tate Gallery

All seems quite normal and mundane, with nothing to distinguish them from thousands of other women, until one notices the angel who has parted the curtains of the arched doorway and kneels in veneration behind it.  Quietly, subtly, the artist evokes our own awed reaction.


The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is May 31st.

See also:  The Kneeling Elizabeth
                 Acts of Blessing
                 Visible Babies
                 The Magnificat



© M. Duffy, 2017. Select images updated and new images added 2024.

+ Indicates updated image.
* Indicated newly added image

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.