In the Mother of God, Christian Hope Finds Its Supreme Witness

Guido Reni (1575–1642), nicknamed “the divine Guide,” was most sought-after artist in Europe during the first half of the 17th century, and the one whose works reached the highest prices on the art market until at least the end of the 18th century. He was a credit to his baptismal name, which furnished his nickname, by becoming the guide of many artists who flocked to be trained in his prestigious studio. This painting, a picture of sheer elevation, sweetness, and harmony, is a work from his mature period. In it the artist expresses the fullness of his meditation on the theme of the Assumption, which he continued throughout his life.

At the limits of the bluish-gray sky of the earth, three putti [infants representing angels] situate our point of view as spectators, for this painting was designed to be viewed from below, so as to give the impression of a sophisticated low-angle shot. And so one of the putti is facing us, while the two others, looking upward, point out the theme of our contemplation: Mary of Nazareth who enters into divine glory, a glory that the painter shows in the clouds by a luminous gold, bordered with cherubs. On the Mother of Jesus blows the wind of the Spirit that had come upon her at the Annunciation; it swells her royal blue mantle and shapes its admirable drapery. It also animates the veil of the Ever-Virgin Mary, with a dynamism that causes it to melt away into the divine light. The delicacy and gracefulness of the lines with which Our Lady is drawn, combined with the discreetly twisted movement of her body, bestow on her majestically standing silhouette a supremely elegant ascending movement.

Here then is the Theotokos [Mother of God] in the sublime delicacy of her humility, depicted in a way that befits the Immaculata, as the sole subject of her glorious Assumption. One angel bears her left foot on his shoulder, while the other angel, with the same gesture, bears her right knee. Her extended arms hold out her open hands toward heaven, expressing in an exquisite way her complete availability to the promptings of grace. Her face and her eyes are directed in excelsis (toward the highest heavens)—with an expression that Reni alone excelled in painting, having found the first inspiration for this art by producing a copy of the Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia by Raphael. (See below)

The Holy Year of the Jubilee, which the Church now offers us the grace of experiencing, has as its fruit “the Hope that does not disappoint.” Now, “Hope finds its supreme witness in the Mother of God.” In her, we see that Christian hope “is not naive optimism but a gift of grace amid the realities of life.”1 On this feast of the Assumption, the Church teaches us that, after doing great things in Mary’s life, God lifted her, body and soul, into heavenly glory. So it is that we can entrust our prayer to her, so that she might bring it to the heart of God:

Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother,
teach us to be like you,
humbly available to the promptings of God’s grace,
so that Jesus, your child, can become
present to the world in our lives,
and do great things in us.

And so, when the hour of our death arrives,
We will take refuge in your motherly arms,
Confident that you will be able to lift us with you
To the Kingdom of Heaven where you are the Queen.
Amen. 

 1 Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025, Spes non confundit, 24.

Pierre-Marie Dumont

The Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1638-39), Guido Reni (1575–1642), Alte Pinakothek, Munich. © Artothek / La Collection.

^{The Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia, Raphaël (1483-1520), Pinacoteca nazionale, Bologna, Italy. Public domain.}