The Cult Of The Virgin Analysis

The biblical Virgin Mary’s story exists in a spiritual realm of understanding that accepts a dimensionality that cannot be quantified by science, but rather must be accepted by pure faith as it requires one to move outside of conventional reality to believe it. Furthering the acceptance of Mary’s holy nature Dorothy Sacksteder in her thesis “The Cult of Mary: The Role of the Virgin during the Italian Renaissance” states that the Roman Catholic Church exercised their spiritual authority in proclaiming Mary’s identity as “Theotokos, Mother of God” at the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century.” Despite the controversial premise of her immaculate conception, and the written religious and secular texts about her life, as debated between the worldwide religions, the sacred treatment …show more content…
The painting is by Master San Torpé, titled Virgin and Child, which is dated 1325, and the medium that the artist uses is egg tempera and gold on a wooden panel with the dimensions of 21 1/8 x 14 1/8; it was viewed for this analysis on March 8, 2018 on the third floor of the SAM museum (fig.1). It is difficult to find preliminary background information about the artist and the museum label offers only the basic identification information as provided in the above. However, Sotheby’s website provides a bit of background information about the artist in the article “Attributed to Master of San Torpé: The Madonna and Child with Angels; Christ Benedict with Angles Above.” He is described in the article as “one of the most important artists active in Pisa,” and yet this distinction has recently drawn an even more elevated appreciation as scholars have attributed a fresh understanding of his talent as having been influenced by other well-known artists like “Duccio…Lorenzitti and also