Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
By Fr. Peter Fennessy, SJ
Joseph Stella, The Virgin (1926), oil on canvas, 39.7 × 38.8 inches, Brooklyn Museum.
Joseph Stella became famous for his Cubo-Futurist compositions of New York. But he felt suffocated by the big city and longed for his native Italy. In “The Virgin” (1926) he turned away from urban imagery back to nature, spirituality and the traditions of his homeland.
Behind Mary’s halo Mount Vesuvius rises over the Bay of Naples. The vibrant colors of this painting are those of the ceramics of southern Italy. The Virgin is what he remembered from the Italian Renaissance altarpieces and the religion of his youth. And although the lilies to her left proclaim Mary to be a virgin, she’s surrounded by birds and by Mediterranean fruits and flowers that stand for life, fecundity and fruitfulness. Flowers adorn her mantle, tunic, hands and significantly the circle that in icons of Our Lady of the Sign represents her womb which holds the newly conceived Son of God.
She has become the Mother of God, whose feast we celebrate this first day of the year. Mary’s face shows peace, her lowered eyes humility and prayerfulness, her folded hands acceptance of God’s will and her love of the Child within her. She is a model for us and our mother as well.