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Pino Blasone 
Mary’s Gazein the History of Art 
 1 – Virgin and Child with Ss. Theodore andGeorge, detail; St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai 
A Byzantine Art of the Gaze
 Reliably, the rendering of Mary’s gaze was a kind problem for painters, since the beginnings of Christian art itself. Already in the frescos of the catacombs, we have varied pictorial typologies, as a
Virgo lactans
(“Suckling Virgin”, late 2
nd
century) in theCatacomb of Priscilla and a
Virgo orans
(“Praying Virgin”, 4
th
century) in the
CoemeteriumMaius
, either at Rome. A later iconography is that of the Madonna with Child enthroned or in majesty, portrayed as “Queen of Heaven” and flanked by saints or angels. A Greek, and1
 
Byzantine, definition for this typology would be
 Kyriotissa
(“Mistress”). Early examples area fresco in the Roman Catacomb of Commodilla, dating approximately to the first half of the 6
th
century, and a coeval icon in St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai, in Egypt.These two artworks are less damaged and better refined than their precedents. Also because of the frontal position of the representation, the rendering of Mary’s gaze shows upas a focal element in the whole composition. Whereas in the former case the Madonna islooking out of the picture, at the painter or the spectator, in the latter she looks toward her left, as if detached from our mundane earth. Indeed it is a diversion, for there we meet withthe gaze of a young St. George, seemingly deputed to intercept devotees’ prayers and to bear them to the Queen of Heaven and Son. On the one hand, especially in Mary’s mien it isstill transparent some a realistic legacy of the Greco-Roman portrait painting tradition, suchas re-emerged from Pompeii or from Fayyum archaeological excavations in modern times. 2 – Virgin and Child, detail; Museum of Bogdan and Varvara Khanenko, Kiev 2
 
On the other hand, the composition resembles the picture of a Byzantine imperialcourt, even more than a heavenly vision. In fact, in the same type of representation, soon wewill see not only nimbed but also crowned Madonnas. Another consequence is that Mary’sgaze results somewhat stern or cool, despite the liquid beauty of her wide eyes or a hieraticvalue of the context. If we like to detect a sweeter, more familiar expression, we had rather to watch a Virgin and Child now in the Museum of Bogdan and Varvara Khanenko, at Kiev.Dating from the 6
th
century, this icon too is an encaustic painting, still keeping some aHellenistic grace. Although damaged and badly restored, in it we can perceive an intensityof the gaze of both mother and baby. Turned toward their right, we cannot know where theylook at. Likely, the wood panel was cropped from a larger scene in the past. The guess thatit was an Adoration of the Mages could also explain a nice gesture of Jesus’ small hand. No doubt, that of 
Maria Regina
(“Mary the Queen”) between the Saints Praxedes andPudentiana, in the Basilica of S.ta Prassede at Rome, is a fully Byzantine fresco. Her fair head is unveiled, haloed and crowned. She gazes directly at us or, better to say, through and beyond us, so much her glance looks vacant and hieratic. Instead of her eyes or lips, thegestures of her hands well communicate. With the right hand open, she is blessing; the other  points at her own womb. The meaning is immediate to realize. This bejewelled, standingand full length portrayed Madonna is gravid. She is pregnant of the “Son of God”. Her gazeis directed as far as human eyes cannot discern, or our minds are unable to believe. Put in aso allusive manner, such a representation is almost an unique in the history of religious art. 3
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