Salve Regina!

A young ornamental ironworker who already was somewhat famous, Quentin Massys (1466–1530) turned instead to painting for the sake of love. In fact, since the father of the beauty for whom his heart burned was a painter, the young turtledove found no better way to approach the object of his desire than to frequent her father’s workshop diligently, as a pupil. 

This anecdote, though perhaps legendary, does account for the charisma of this artist, whose works resound like so many love songs, in tones that are sometimes happy, sometimes tragic, but always moving. A faithful follower of the Flemish primitive painters—with van Eyck and Van der Weyden in the lead—Quentin was able to achieve a harmonious synthesis between his tradition and the innovative art of the great masters of the Italian Renaissance—in the first place, that of Leonardo da Vinci—so as to become the greatest artist of Northern Europe in the 16^th century. 

Eia ergo, advocata nostra

Here then is his Virgin praying—more exactly, interceding. This work is part of a diptych; its counterpart is one of the most famous examples of the Salvator Mundi [Savior of the World] ever painted, equal to the one by Leonardo.* Mary is depicted crowned, therefore in heaven. She is rapt in contemplation of her divine Son at the final accomplishment of salvation history: while Jesus is enthroned in glory to judge the living and the dead, his mother prays for us poor sinners, now and at the hour of our death. 

Let us take a moment to observe how meticulous, precise, and hyper-realistic the technique of Quentin Massys is, while remaining virtuosic, and therefore fully alive and symbolic. Let us admire the subtle refinement of the touches of paint, a refinement that is imparted just as well to the objects (the pearls, for example) and the clothing (the transparent veil, the fur edging) as to the human body (the hair, the eyelashes, the complexion and the features of the face, the folded hands). And what can we say about the very gently nuanced expressiveness of the colors that reach the point of transparency, which is a fitting way to render the beauty of creatures when they are united forever to the Light born of Light? 

O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria

This face of Mary expresses with an unprecedented delicacy Quentin Massys’ innate sense of the mystery of the human figure touched by grace. What an artist, who managed in this way to give this face an altogether interior and mystical expression that manifests what human serenity was before the first sin! And yet a serenity veiled here by a truly poignant, tragic feeling: the feeling that the Mother of God, our Mother, will retain as long as just one human being is in danger of being damned. So it is that the look and the whole attitude of the woman who has been enthroned as Queen of Heaven reveal how completely the adoration of her Son Jesus fills the breadth and the height of her motherly heart to the point of overflowing, so that she invests the surplus—which is inexhaustible, to tell the truth!—in beseeching him irresistibly for each one of us. 

*To see both sides of this dyptich, please visit our website: www.magnificat.com/cover

Pierre-Marie Dumont
Virgin praying, Quentin Massys (c. 1466–1530), Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium. © Art in Flanders / Bridgeman Images.