19th Century Art and Mary

The nineteenth century saw a burgeoning of different styles. It saw the development of the Academic School of Art, and that of the Symbolists. The artist Ingres, a master of line and surface in abstract art (cf. the Virgin Contemplating the Host, as an object of remoteness, nobility and detachment) is one of the most typical, as is the artist and engraver Odilon Redon.

However, there were those who reacted against the conventions of this school.

From the Nazarenes......

First of all, the Nazarenes (a nickname given to a group of artists on account of their long hair like Jesus’, whose thinking originated in Germany in the Pre-Romantic Movement of the nineteenth century), want to return to both a more concrete and contemplative form of Art. Many Nazarenes, being Catholic, allow their faith to burst forth in their pictures and engravings, and above all in huge frescoes in which historical and religious themes abound (cf. Albrecht Dürer and his engravings depicting the Virgin’s life, for example).

To the Pre-Raphaelites...

This movement comprised seven artists that formed a kind of Protestant ‘brotherhood’ against academism. They took their subjects from stories that go back to the Middle Ages. They were called Pre-Raphaelites because they wanted to rediscover Art that was not inspired by convention, but sincerity. They idealized the woman (cf. Orphelia floating on the water), a concept that harks back to the courtly love of ladies during the Middle Ages, and to Christian knightly virtues.

...and the so-called “Sulpician” and “Devotional” Art.

At the same time and in the same spirit as these artistic movements, there was also a rise in so-called “Sulpician” or “Devotional” Art which found expression in pious pictures dominated by feeling and romanticism: images of Mary abounded. Even in statuary, the Virgin Mary is often represented surrounded by clouds and cherubs (cf. the statue of Our Lady of the Assumption at the heart of the Chapel of The Assumption (St Sulpice Church, Paris 6th arr.) Sulpician devotional art is a popular form that would lead to the “kitsch Catholic” Movement, with all that it entails in terms of eccentricity, outmoded artistic devices and questionable style.