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The depiction of the Virgin Mary through the Medieval and Renaissance period was important in that it helped

to raise the status of women in Western society. Th e art and literature of the times presented the Virgin Mary as a human mother ex hibiting divine qualities through being the Mother of God. The influence of thes e qualities can be seen in the art of the Renaissance and specifically in the "C hartre" Cathedral. The literature of the Renaissance also compared the role of E ve and the original sin to that of the Virgin Mary and her divinity in being cho sen to give birth the Christ. The stain glass of the churches in Renaissance Eur ope also depict typical biblical scenes to educate and symbolize beliefs of the faith. The primary reason for the growth of the adoration of the Virgin Mary during the Medieval and Renaissance Period was her symbolic power that was brought forth t hrough art, sculpture and literature. She captured the Christians imagination th rough both popular devotion and a theological reflection of God in works created through out the Renaissance. It was the image of the "Mother of the Redeemer," featuring the merciful kindness of the Savior and of His mother as companion in the redemption work of her son to show her divine right to her God. During the Renaissance, the Virgin Mary was prevalent theme throughout this peri od where artists such as: Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Bothicellica l and Perugino were inspired to paint the Virgin Mary. The paintings show a moth erly pleasant looking women holding or caring for her child. The paints are capt uring the Mary as a human but giving her a divine appearance. The child being Ch rist shows her power by giving birth to him and by caring for the Son of God. In essence providing love, caring, and protection for the young child of God. For example, plate 15 and frame 23, these plates show a compassionate caring mother that is humanistic in depiction but larger or more encompassing of the painting than the Christ child. This is implying her importance in the early life of Chri st. This also shows the power or her earthly influence over the child even thoug h she is a human and not a deity. This gives her a special place in the church a s the earthly Mother that is the most perfect of humans, other than Christ. The Renaissance art clearly shows her as a motherly, honorable or respectable wo men to be adored by humans. Her expression in most of the artwork reflects a ple asant adoring look toward her child exhibiting unconditional love, faithfulness and obedience. This look tends show Mary as giving support and approval to her c hild in his actions on earth. This also brings human closer to God in that he wa s born human and fulfilled his scriptural duties on earth for us. Her importance to humans was also brought forth in similar sculptures in the Catholic church s uch as the "Pieta" and through literature of the times. The symbol of mother and child was transformed in the Renaissance period by beco ming more divine and becoming a focus of adoration by Christians. She was always the Virgin Mary Mother of God through out the early church but during the Medie val and Renaissance periods her position was elevated by art and literature. She was depicted as a human exhibiting heavenly and graceful qualities from her app earance in flowing robs to her innocent facial features. She is even presented i n paintings being seen in heavenly thrones with Christ, elaborate beautiful surr oundings. Prior these depictions of Mary she was simply a women who gave birth t o Christ but through the though and art of the Renaissance she was included inti mately with Christ in humanistic form. Mary together with Eve, with whom she has often been contrasted as the Second Ev e, has provided the subject matter for some of the best and worst in that checke red history. Psychological significance of Mary has been her function as the sym bol of those qualities in a God, who is transience beyond all gender. Because Mary is the women par excellence for most of Western history, the subtle 's and complexities in the interpretation of her person and works, are at the sa me time central to the study of the place of women in history. Eve and Mary are contrasted in terms of disobedience and obedience, unbelief and faith, death and life. There are sharp oppositions between Mary the obedient and faithful women and Eve the temptress and sinner. Disobedience and death of Eve balanced by virg inity, obedience and life of Mary is to believe what had been lost through one s ex might be saved and restored through the same sex as well.

Through history pictures have been used to tell and teach people who were illite rate or poorly educated. The uses of transparent colors that are illuminated by stain glass colors, patterns and subject matter images. Symbolically the light i s associated with the rays of light from God. It is as if the God is illuminatin g the image that tells of his story while the onlookers are in his house, the ch urch. The stain glass windows typically focus on the main events in the church h istory as documented by New Testament. Specifically, they document the key event s in Christ's life. The subject matter of Pentecost, annunciation, Christ's bapt ism, crucifixion and his resurrection are displayed in all of the Renaissance ch urches. These images also include the Virgin Mary who is with or near Christ tho ugh may of his ordeals. In reviewing the stain glass works the techniques of using bold transparent colo rs were used to depict the clothing of people, deep yellows and bright whites wh ere used as crowns or halos for Christ. Also the use of the dark metal edging or lead calms on the glass shapes gave clear distinction between colors and images making the images bold and clear. The adoration on the Virgin Mary during the Renaissance period clearly had a pro found influence over society's view of woman. The art and literature showed her a divine human with significant ties to the holy trinity. A woman was selected b y God to give virginal birth to his son. This human form of God was thus tied to the humans on earth through Mary. This helped to bring the prophecy of redempti on for all sinners and the acceptance of our human sin onto Christ. This clearly helped to lift the conception of women to a higher plateau but from a societal view women were still clearly inferior to men and treated as such.

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