The Swoon of the Virgin, in Italian Lo Spasimo della Vergine, or Fainting Virgin Mary was an idea developed in the late

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, that the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

had fainted during the

Passion of Christ The Passion (from latin language, Latin , "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy ...

, most often placed while she watched the

Crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being crucifixion, nailed to a cross.The instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus f ...

. It was based on mentions in later texts of the

apocryphal Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

Gospel of Nicodemus The Gospel of Nicodemus, also known as the Acts of Pilate (; ), is an apocryphal gospel purporting to be derived from an original work written by Nicodemus, who appears in the Gospel of John as an acquaintance of Jesus. The title "Gospel of Nicod ...

(Acta Pilati)'', which describe Mary swooning. It was popular in later

medieval art The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, with over 1000 years of art in Europe, and at certain periods in Western Asia and Northern Africa. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional ar ...

and theological literature, but as it was not mentioned in the

Canonical Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sen ...

, it became controversial - Protestants rejecting it outright, and from the 16th century discouraged also by many senior Catholic churchmen. The swoon might be placed during the episode of Christ Carrying the Cross, as on the

Via Dolorosa The (Latin for 'Sorrowful Way', often translated 'Way of Suffering'; ; ) is a processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem. It represents the path that Jesus took, forced by the Roman soldiers, on the way to his crucifixion. The winding rou ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, but very commonly also during the Crucifixion of Jesus;

Nicholas Penny Sir Nicholas Beaver Penny (born 21 December 1949) is a British art historian. From 2008 to 2015 he was director of the National Gallery in London. Early life Penny was educated at Shrewsbury School before he studied English at St Catharine ...

estimates that "about half of the surviving paintings of the Crucifixion made between 1300 and 1500 will be found to include the Virgin fainting". It also appeared in works showing the

Deposition from the Cross Deposition may refer to: * Deposition (law), taking testimony outside of court * Deposition (politics), the removal of a person of authority from political power * Deposition (university), a widespread initiation ritual for new students practiced ...

and

Entombment of Christ The burial of Jesus refers to the entombment of the body of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus after his crucifixion before the erev Shabbat, eve of the sabbath. This event is described in the New Testament. According to the Gospels, canonical gospel ...

, as well as the 15th-century novelty of

Christ taking leave of his Mother Christ taking leave of his Mother is a subject in Christian art, most commonly (although not exclusively) found in Northern European art of the 15th and 16th centuries. Christ says farewell to his mother Mary, often blessing her, before leaving ...

History

A fainting Mary is sometimes shown in art as early as the 12th century, and becomes common by the middle of the 13th century. For example there is one in the Crucifixion relief on the

pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery The pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery was completed by Nicola Pisano and his assistants in 1260, and has long been regarded as a landmark in Italian art, especially for its large relief panels around the platform. For Kenneth Clark the pulpit was "t ...

of 1260, by

Nicola Pisano Nicola Pisano (also called ''Niccolò Pisano'', ''Nicola de Apulia'' or ''Nicola Pisanus''; /1225 – ) was an Italian sculpture, sculptor whose work is noted for its classical Ancient Rome, Roman sculptural style. Pisano is sometimes considered ...

. By 1308 the pilgrimage route of the

included a church formally dedicated to Saint

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

but known as the site of the Virgin's swoon; by 1350 guidebooks mention a church of ''Santa Maria de Spasimo'', which was later replaced by housing. The very popular book ''

Meditations on the Life of Christ The ''Meditations on the Life of Christ'' ( or '; Italian ''Meditazione della vita di Cristo'') is a fourteenth-century devotional work, later translated into Middle English by Nicholas Love as '' The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ' ...

'', of about 1300, mentions three points in the Passion where Mary faints or collapses. By the 15th century Italian ''

sacri monti The (plural of , Italian for "Sacred Mountain") of Piedmont and Lombardy are a series of nine calvaries or groups of chapels and other architectural features created in northern Italy during the late sixteenth century and the seventeenth century ...

'' included shrines commemorating the ''spasimo'' in their routes, and an unofficial

feast-day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

was being celebrated by many, especially the

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

, and the Vatican was being asked to make it official. However no such incident was mentioned in the

Four Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sense ...

, and it was disapproved of by many theologians. The backlash produced a work of 1506 by the Dominican

Thomas Cajetan Thomas Cajetan ( ; 20 February 14699 August 1534), also known as Gaetanus, commonly Tommaso de Vio or Thomas de Vio, was an Italian philosopher, theologian, the Master of the Order of Preachers 1508 to 1518, and cardinal from 1517 until his de ...

, then a professor at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

and later to be head of his order and, as a Cardinal,

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

's opponent in dialogue. Cajetan pointed out the lack of biblical authority and, as described by

, that "the severe physical weakness following a 'spasimo' as defined by

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

would be incompatible with the explicit statement in the Gospel of Saint John that the Virgin stood beside the cross, an act of endurance that would have required exceptional strength. Furthermore, even a less serious faint or 'spasimo' would have been incompatible with the Grace that enabled the Virgin to suffer with her full mind". Official disapproval of the swoon gained ground in the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

and was followed by the authors of guides for the clergy on the interpretation of the short and inexplicit decrees of the Council of Trent in 1563 on sacred images, with minutely detailed instructions for artists and commissioners of works. The guides of

Molanus Joannes Molanus (1533–1585), often cited simply as Molanus, is the Latinized name of Jan Vermeulen or Van der Meulen, an influential Counter Reformation Catholic theologian of Louvain University, where he was Professor of Theology, and Rector ...

(1570), Cardinal

Gabriele Paleotti Gabriele Paleotti (4 October 1522 – 22 July 1597) was an Italian cardinal and Archbishop of Bologna. He was a significant figure in, and source about, the later sessions of the Council of Trent, and much later a candidate for the papacy in 15 ...

(1582) and Cardinal Federigo Borromeo objected to the depiction, and it was criticised by authors of theological works on the Virgin such as

Peter Canisius Peter Canisius (; 8 May 1521 – 21 December 1597) was a Dutch Jesuit priest known for his strong support for the Catholic faith during the Protestant Reformation in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland and the British Isles. The ...

(1577). At least in Rome there appears to have been actual censorship, with paintings removed from public view and permission refused for the publication of an

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

by Cornelius Bloemaert of a ''Crucifixion'' by Annibale Carraci, which had to be published in Paris instead. However, no more official condemnation of the belief in the incident came, and although new depictions were fewer, existing ones remained in place, including many in Dominican churches. Indeed, where the swooning Virgin was depicted, she was often even more prominent. Depictions placed other than at the Crucifixion itself avoided many of the theological objections. The examples illustrated show more complete fainting, but in many images the Virgin remains standing, supported by St John, the

Three Marys The Three Marys (also spelled Maries) are women mentioned in the canonical gospels' narratives of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospels refer to several women named Mary. At various points of Christian history, some of these ...

, or other disciples. Many images are ambiguous, presumably deliberately, and can be read as the Virgin either feeling faint, or simply stricken with grief. One major work to depict the Swoon is '' The Descent from the Cross'' by

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden (; 1399 or 140018 June 1464), initially known as Roger de le Pasture (), was an Early Netherlandish painting, early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commis ...

(

Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on ...

, c. 1435), in which the body of the Virgin, with eyes closed, is parallel to that of her son just above.Schiller, II, 168

Churches

A number of churches take the name of the Swoon, including: *

Santa Maria dello Spasimo Santa Maria dello Spasimo, or Lo Spasimo, is an unfinished Catholic church in the Kalsa neighborhood in Palermo, Sicily, on Via dello Spasimo. Construction of the church and accompanying monastery of the Olivetan Order began in 1509 with a pap ...

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

*Santa Maria dello Spasimo, Modugno,

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

*Beata Vergine dello Spasimo,

Cerea Cerea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Verona, Veneto, northern Italy. History From 923 AD until 1223 Cerea was a ''castrum'' (fortification). On 1223 Cerea it became a "comune" but, a year after, it was plundered because of the war be ...

Province of Verona The province of Verona (Italian: ''provincia di Verona'') is a province of the Veneto region in Italy. On its northwestern border, Lake Garda—Italy's largest—is divided between Verona and the provinces of Brescia (Lombardy region) and Trentin ...

*Madonna dello Spasimo,

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

Gallery

File:The-Cucifixion-157 Мастер Читта ди Кастелло. Манчестер..jpg, Italian, c. 1320 File:Giotto, Lower Church Assisi, Crucifixion 01.jpg, Lower Church,

Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi (; ) is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor Conventual in Assisi, a town in the Umbria region in central Italy, where Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis was born and died. It is a pa ...

Assisi Assisi (, also ; ; from ; Central Italian: ''Ascesi'') is a town and comune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Prope ...

File:Berswordt-Altar-Mitte-Detail.jpg, Marienkirche, detail from the Berswordt-Altar File:Boccaccio Boccaccino - Christ carrying the Cross (National Gallery, London).jpg,

Boccaccio Boccaccino Boccaccio Boccaccino (c. 1467 – c. 1525) was a painter of the early Italian Renaissance, belonging to the Emilian school. He is profiled in Vasari's (or, in English, ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects''). ...

, '' Christ Carrying the Cross'' (National Gallery, London) File:Albrecht Altdorfer, Christ Taking Leave of His Mother (probably 1520).jpg, ''

Christ taking Leave of his Mother Christ taking leave of his Mother is a subject in Christian art, most commonly (although not exclusively) found in Northern European art of the 15th and 16th centuries. Christ says farewell to his mother Mary, often blessing her, before leaving ...

'',

Albrecht Altdorfer Albrecht Altdorfer ( – 12 February 1538) was a German painter, engraver and architect of the Renaissance working in Regensburg, Bavaria. Along with Lucas Cranach the Elder and Wolf Huber he is regarded to be the main representative of the Da ...

c. 1520 File:LE BRUN Charles The Descent from the Cross.jpg,

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French Painting, painter, Physiognomy, physiognomist, Aesthetics, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, ...

, ''Descent from the Cross'' File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 071.jpg,

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

, ''Descent from the Cross'', 1632-33 with a literally down to earth depiction (bottom left) File:Berg bei RV Pfarrkirche Kreuztragung.jpg, In a '' Christ Carrying the Cross'', from a South German church

Notes

References

* Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues (new series): ''The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I'', 2004, National Gallery Publications Ltd, * Schiller, Gertrud, ''Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II'', 1972 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London,

History

Churches

Gallery

Notes

References

Further reading