MATER Dolorosa

The mother of pain constitutes a pathetic counterpoint with the religious topics of the Nativité and Vierge with the child.

The expression comes from the first towards Christian anthem " Stabat MATER dolorosa" who results in " the mother of pain was held debout" (with the foot of the cross). See Crucifixion.

The topic of the " to subdue dolorosa" is recurring 14th at the 17th century in the Christian religious art and particularly in the countries of catholicity and orthodoxy which make an eminent place with the Vierge. It indeed treats suffering of Marie with died of its son Jesus torture victim on the cross.

One meets primarily two types of representations:

that of the Stabat MATER painting the mother éplorée with the foot of the drawn up cross,
and that of the Pietà, word of Italian origin which applies to the representation, in sculpture and painting, of the mother holding on her knees the body of his/her detached son of the cross.

The topic inspired also the type-setters like Pergolèse with its Stabat MATER composed in 1736, before becoming one of the expressions of the Romantisme in Literature.

In a broader way, the term applies to the representations of the extreme maternal pain at the time of died of a child : certain photographs of press related to the tragic topicality indeed take again in a way more or less conscious the traditional guns of the old art which marked the sensitivity of the Occident.

Works

They extremely many and are varied:

of very famous like the pietà of Villeneuve-the-Avignon or the pietà of Michel Angel with Rome and Florence or well of others…
with the works anonymous and ignored like the small statue of the 15th century of the small vault of the castle of Époisses in Burgundy.

work of classical music " stabat mater" of Francis poulenc whose first movement is " stabat to subdue dolorosa".

Films

1917 : MATER Dolorosa of Abel Gance

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