Woman of the Apocalypse

As a crescent moon Madonna ( aureole Madonna, Madonna in the aureole, apocalyptic Madonna) is called in the Christian iconography of a Marian image, which is characterized by the pericope of the apocalyptic woman in the Book of Revelation. The Mother of God stands on the crescent moon, mostly it keeps the baby Jesus in her arms.

Origins

The image of the crescent moon Madonna goes back to the report John's vision of a cosmic and pursued by a dragon pregnant woman who is crowned with stars and clothed with the sun on the moon and exposed to the last apocalyptic battle between the dragon and the Archangel Michael will.

Religion Historically, the image of the apocalyptic woman on the Isis cult Astral antiquity is returned, but it learns through the birth motif is an apocalyptic reinterpretation. Already the Old Church interprets twelve stars as the zodiac, the sun and the moon when Christ as the impermanence of the world. Since Epiphanius the woman in the Roman Catholic Church is equated with Mary in Orthodoxy (and later Luther ) with the Church. In this representation form Maria is also known as Queen of Heaven (Latin regina coeli ).

Representations

The first pictorial representation of the crescent Madonna is found in the Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg ( 1175/85 ) and in Matutinale of Scheyern ( 1206/26 ). In the Gothic period the features of the apocalyptic woman transform into increasingly Madonna-like how the initial A in the Gradual of St. Katharinenthal (around 1312). The oldest wooden sculpture can be found in the deer Madonna (Erfurt 1370 ).

The moon representation was initially designed as a full moon with a face. With the victory of the Holy League in 1571 the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lepanto, and the introduction of the feast of Our Holy woman wins ( Feast of the Rosary ) by Pope Pius V. was the figure of Mary in the 16th century increasingly imaged with a pointing up or down crescent moon which was symbolically crushed by the statue of the Madonna.

In the late Middle Ages to the type the title of Our Lady was settled in victory. Crescent Madonnas were executed in the 15th century mostly as individual figures, in Marie chandeliers as well as an altar components. Sometimes you put the Madonna enthroned with the moon symbol is connected (Madonna of Ulm 1420/25 ).

The crescent moon design was so popular that you Madonna subsequently older with a halo and crescent sided ( candlesticks Madonna Bad Doberan 1300 supplemented 15th century ). In the 16th century joined the crescent moon, the snake motif that has been trodden down as a symbol of evil Maria (relief v. Peter Dell 1515). The type of the crescent Madonna walked in 17-18. Century in the type of Mary Immaculate.