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AUDIO 2: Medieval Mary Garden Grotto  Portrait of Mary: A Medieval Mary Garden Grotto With Flower Legends Few images in art history are more familiar than the Madonna with Christ Child, often surrounded by plant symbols. From early times, painters, architects, poets, and spiritual fathers used the fresh vivid emblems of the fragrant garden to awaken the senses, evoke tender emotions, and quicken reflection on the Mysteries of Christ and his mother and first disciple, the Virgin Mary. Around the world, a collection of these legendary plants with Her image alone or with Christ is called a Mary Garden. In the predominantly illiterate medieval times, visual plant symbols helped to spread and reinforce the Christ message. But with modern mass printing, wholesale distribution of food, and urban societies inhabiting virtual man-made environments, many sacred flower symbols of the home garden are fading from social memory. To delight the senses, offer spiritual refreshment, and preserve sacred flower language, the Madison Museum of Fine Art presents an evolving “Portrait of Mary: A Medieval Mary Garden Grotto.” In this botanical visual art exhibition, still under development, you will learn how to read medieval Christian flower symbols based on color, form, and season of bloom. So come “take a sublime walk into the history of art and beauty.” Breathe in with your eyes. Follow your nose. Savor this moment. And remember in your heart. Previous • Back to List • Next |