Visitation, Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448-1494)
The feast of the Visitation commemorates the event about which we read in Luke1: 36-56. We learn there how two women in equally mysterious and miraculous ways have become pregnant. Mary the younger woman travels to visit her much older cousin Elizabeth, who lives with her husband Zacharia in the city of Judah. Ghirlandaio recreates the moment when the two women greet each other, presumably after a long absence. The profound joy that each woman experiences from the new life expanding inside her finds expression in a central image: the women’s act of embracing. In contrast to the social conventions of the time, it is Elizabeth, the older woman, who kneels in reverence and respect before her much younger cousin. Elizabeth’s pose of homage perhaps also anticipates visually, the great song that Mary is about to proclaim, the Magnificat. This hymn exalts the Lord who raises up the most lowly such as Mary herself and gives comfort to those who are hungry and despised. Ghirlandaio is evoking the up-ending of the social order through casting down of the the mighty and of the natural order through conception by a Virgin. The artist reminds us that like the bonds of love and empathy which unite Mary and Elizabeth God’s love will endure and sustain the two mothers and us.
Art Guide Resource
The 2013 Art Guide has been compiled by Claire Renkin, well-known Art Historian and Lecturer at Yarra Theological Union and narrated by Margaret Coffey. Margaret has a background in historical research, journalism, education and broadcasting including at the ABC. Artworks featured © Bridgeman Images.
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