Text in Art: "The Adoration of the Shepherds"

            Perhaps from afar this 14^th Century painting from an Italian cathedral, dubbed “The Adoration of the Shepards,” suggests little in the way of writing. We see Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus – all with halos – collectively staring at two visitors, presumably the shepherds. We see God and the angels overhead. We see farm animals. We don’t see much calligraphy, though – at least nothing resembling the ornate Arabic script described elsewhere on this blog.

            We do, however, see some words in Mary’s halo. The two words on the top half of the circle – “Maria” and “Gratia” – are fairly easy to read. On the lower left side, we have the word “Ave,” where the A has, over the years, been distorted to look almost like an H, and where the E looks like a backwards D. Finally, on the lower right side, we have the word “Plena.” At first glance the partially obscured A may resemble an E, but note the thickness of the rightmost vertical line, and compare this to the other A’s visible in the image.

            So there we have it. “Ave Maria Gratia Plena,” Latin for “Hail Mary, full of grace,” which some will recognize as the opening words of the Hail Mary prayer. But what’s the significance of including these words? Weren’t most people illiterate back then? Could the average church-goer really have been expected to read that? Perhaps not, though anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin could have recognized "Ave Maria Gratia Plena." 

            But maybe the denotative value of the words wasn’t the main point. Most book scribes, after all, had very little knowledge of what it was they were writing. Their prime directive was simply to copy, and to copy beautifully. Might not the illiterate church-goer similarly view these words as empty, albeit beautiful, markings?