“Daughter
of Zion, do not hinder our light / nor force us, I pray, to dwell in darkness.
/ Dazzling Rome, return the gift desired by all, / and give back the hope of a
mighty people.” Who wrote this passage? Sedulius Scottus, a 9th Century Irish poet. Who, exactly, is he writing about? His patron, the Bishop
Hartgar. But most importantly, why is this poetic verse at all relevant to the above
painting?
Scottus’ text is representative of a
popular poetic genre in the Middle Ages – the panegyric, i.e. a poem
containing nothing but praise for a given individual. Such poems aren’t afraid to
equate the praisee with abstractions. Indeed, Hartgar is described as “light,”
a “gift,” and “hope.” Such nebulous descriptions serve to elevate the praised
individual above the mundane, earthly realm.
The
painting above, a 13th Century Italian relic dubbed “The Virgin and
Child,” depicts Mary and baby Jesus in a
similar manner – a manner, in fact, that may look a little strange to modern
eyes. The two don’t look entirely realistic. Mary’s fingers look a little too
long, and Jesus looks like an adult who’s been photoshopped to look smaller
than he actually is.
Do
these discrepancies point to some deficiency in the artist’s talents? Almost certainly
not. The painting is very skillfully done on the whole. Surely if the artist
wanted to make Mary’s fingers shorter, or to make Jesus look like an actual
infant, he could have. Instead, he opted for an otherworldly depiction of these
two. Jesus, in being born a miniature full-grown man, didn’t pass through
infancy like the rest of us. Such a privilege is entirely befitting of the Son
of God. Mary, in having slender, alien-like fingers, likewise showcases her separation
from the normal human realm.
Might not Bishop Hartgar have been similar, at least to Scottus?
Perhaps Scottus saw Hartgar as individual so great as to transcend the real
world.
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