Few images in art history are more familiar than the Madonna with Christ Child, often surrounded by plant symbols. For over 2000 years, painters, architects, poets, and spiritual fathers have used the fresh vivid symbols of the fragrant garden to awaken the senses, evoke tender emotions, and quicken reflection on the Mysteries of Christ as seen through the eyes of the Virgin Mary, his mother and first disciple.
During the predominantly agricultural pre-literate times, many medieval faithful used botanical symbols to reflect on and spread the Christian Gospel. A plant's form, color, and liturgical season of bloom offered opportunities to recall and embellish the Holy Family story with visual symbols of Mary's grace, virtues, mysteries, imaginary habits, features, garments, and emotions. Around the world, a collection of these legendary plants with Her image is called a Mary Garden.
In today's increasingly urban society marked by traffic congestion, virtual man-made living environments, mass food distribution, and diminishing green space, the rich language of Biblical flower symbols and the spiritual nourishment they can offer risk fading from popular memory.
To delight the senses, refresh the sprit, and preserve the rich language of medieval flower symbols, the Madison Museum of Fine Art presents “Portrait of Mary: A Medieval Botanical Garden.” This developing exhibition features original sculptures in an outdoor garden, a cascading fountain, a mosaic of medieval flower symbols set in a garden Rosary, and a focal sculpture “Mary of Madison” set in a petite rose arbor grotto.
This museum exhibition is a work in progress. And we invite you, the visitor, to help us with this installation. Contributions include plants sculpture, time, and financial support. So come take “a sublime walk into the history of art and beauty.” Visit the Museum in person, or take a virtual walk through our medieval Mary Garden.
If this is your first visit to the Museum, look for our Plant Guide that lists traditional Mary Garden plants by their symbolic, common, and botanical names. Or ask for a garden map, which you can hold as you wander through the garden. If you wish to meditate on the traditional Mysteries of Christ, a set of 58 devotional stepping stones mark “the way of the garden rosary.”
The word “rosary” means a bed of roses and also a string of prayer beads with a set of prayers. Early Christians used prayer beads to mediate on the Mysteries of Christ. Yet, in tending the daily garden, many faithful found that simple fresh sensual flower symbols could focus the mind more immediately, frequently, and vividly on each Mystery. For them, the garden Rosary offered more paced prayers for greater reflection and mediation than the spoken rosary. A book of Rosary prayers can be found at the front desk of the museum.
If you enjoy this botanical museum exhibition, you might enjoy visiting other Mary Gardens around the world. Other Mary Gardens in the United States include: The Garden of Our Lady, Woods Hole at Cape Cod, Massachusetts; The Mary Garden, Annapolis, Maryland; The Mary Garden, Dayton, Ohio; Mary’s Garden, Portage, Michigan; and The Mary Garden, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Other Mary Gardens around the world include:Mary’s Garden, Knock, Ireland; The Mary Garden, Dublin, Ireland; The Mary Garden, Lincoln, England; The Mary Garden, Akita, Japan; and Mary’s Garden Wangaretta, Victoria, Australia.
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