Covered in Glory: Cloaks for the Madonna
Guest edited by Genevieve Woods
In 1629, or thereabout, Isabella Clara Eugenia ordered a dress. It was modelled on one she wore while sitting for a portrait that now hangs in the Royal Collection, London. Like that dress, it had a front centre panel and a wide hem treated with dense embroidery. The remaining areas were covered in finely worked lilies and roses in a natural style and the whole liberally sewn with pearls and precious stones, as would be fitting for an Infanta of Spain, Archduchess of Austria and sovereign of the Low Countries.
In 1673 Theodora Margareta von SnetterWitteb ordered a dress in plush burgundy velour with abundant decoration in silver thread. Not long after, Eleonora-Madeleine of PalatinateNeuburg and her daughters embroidered abstract floral motifs onto a satin dress studded with pearls. At a later date, 1871, Frau von Meusen had a dress made in ochre damask with a pair of pelicans woven into the cloth, and chose to have it embroidered with gold garlands and images of the saints. Then recently in 2009 Jean-Charles de Castelbajac designed a dress in damask woven with a battle fatigue motif completely oversewn with sequins at its wide hem. No expense was spared on the dresses ordered, even though the person commissioning them had no intention of ever wearing them.
Offering lavish clothing as a gift to a statue of the Virgin, is a long established tradition in Europe, dating from the 12th century. The practice of dressing statues of the Virgin, usually with her holding an infant Jesus is found in some of the principle sanctuaries dedicated to Mary, the “Notre Dame” churches and cathedrals of Catholic Europe, located mainly in the south. Some statutes are famously known as Black Virgins as their exposed faces and hands have darkened over time.
Initially kings, prelates and other important members of a community offered a cloak to the Virgin to express their devotion. From the mid-14th century the statues of the Virgin were often fully clothed and dressed like real women of the period. An ensemble could include a wig of real hair, precious jewellery and ornaments, a crown, makeup and even perfume and undergarments, so that a statue of the Virgin Mary dressed in all her luxurious finery seemed more likely to raise lascivious than devotional thoughts in her followers, or so the Church thought. At the Council of Trent (1545-1563) the issue of Mary’s dress was debated: and since Marial worship had a large following, rather than ban the practice the faithful were instructed to dress a statue to convey Mary’s sovereign dignity and virtues.
Image and image above: The Guadalupe Madonna (detail of 186934), Spanish School / Monasterio Real, Guadalupe, Spain.
This changed the form of her garments. The ‘dress’ became an expanse of material wrapped around the statue, leaving only the head and hands exposed, and was fastened with ties at the rear, and fell in a cone shape. The infant Jesus, held in Mary’s left hand, wore a miniature version of his mother’s dress, usually made out of the same material. Instead of forming a cone shape, his garment would fall from his face as a flat piece of bib-like fabric. Mary’s outfit was completed by a long veil, either in lace, or elaborately embroidered, or in a contrasting colour and fabric to frame the statue like a cloak. Both Madonna and Child were then adorned with crowns.
With the change in ‘dress’ came a transformation of the underlying statue. From the early period where the statues were images of the Virgin fully clothed and carved in wood or stone, to the later period, when the statue beneath the garments had ‘disappeared’ leaving only the finely worked visible parts – the carved head, hands and sometimes arms, and her feet. Beneath the garment the ‘statue’ was a structure of wooden blocks and metal supports. With this development the devotional image transferred from the statue to the garments.
At the Council of Ephesus in 431AD Mary was proclaimed the Mother of God, and consequently became the Queen of Heaven. There are over forty special feast days plus the months of May and October dedicated to Marian veneration and celebrating these occasions requires a statue in the correct attire. At Notre Dame de Fourvière in Lyon, the Madonna wears gold on her feast days at joyous times in the year, and is dressed in silver when her feast days fall during a time of penitence. In October she wears blue, for Easter Sunday red and Good Friday purple. From an inventory taken in 1897, this particular statue is known to have had seventeen dresses and six cloaks.
Other churches dedicated to Our Lady have more extensive collections, at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) the Madonna’s wardrobe runs to forty dresses, Isabella Clara Eugenia’s being one of them. The Virgin of Notre Dame de Daurade in Toulouse has a thirty piece wardrobe, the latest items were added in 2009 by the fashion designers Jean-Charles Castelbajac, Franck Sorbier and Jean-Michel Broc.
Dresses are donating to make a public display of piety or to give thanks. Marial worship looks to the Virgin to provide protection, and if this has been granted then an offering is forthcoming, as from the mother who gave a dress in red cloth embroidered with gold and bronze coloured threads depicting angels and scenes from the Apocalypse, as a way of giving thanks for the safe return of her son after WW2. The Virgin of Notre Dame de Daurade, Toulouse, protects the town and is appealed to in times of crisis, for instance flood, war or fire. At a personal level she is believed to help in childbirth, and pregnant women still continue to borrow a belt from the statue to ensure a safe delivery. When the danger has passed, protection having been given, then the statue receives a donation, or cloth towards a dress, or jewellery.
Why has the statue of the Virgin and her Child been adorned and venerated for her protective powers? Perhaps there are echoes of Eurynome, and even earlier mother-goddesses such as Isis. Others have interpreted Mary’s dress and that of her infant Jesus as a symbol of skin, and a psychological representation of the trauma of birth; from the fusion of mother and child in the first moments of life to the final acknowledgement of separation from the mother as the infant learns to be by himself.
Whatever the mystery and attraction behind the statues of the Virgin and Child which have generated the elaborate collections of garments, her image continues to give succour and peace to many that look upon her.
Covered in Glory: Cloaks for the Madonna was published in Issue 52: Botanical of Selvedge Magazine.
In 1629, or thereabout, Isabella Clara Eugenia ordered a dress. It was modelled on one she wore while sitting for a portrait that now hangs in the Royal Collection, London. Like that dress, it had a front centre panel and a wide hem treated with dense embroidery. The remaining areas were covered in finely worked lilies and roses in a natural style and the whole liberally sewn with pearls and precious stones, as would be fitting for an Infanta of Spain, Archduchess of Austria and sovereign of the Low Countries.
In 1673 Theodora Margareta von SnetterWitteb ordered a dress in plush burgundy velour with abundant decoration in silver thread. Not long after, Eleonora-Madeleine of PalatinateNeuburg and her daughters embroidered abstract floral motifs onto a satin dress studded with pearls. At a later date, 1871, Frau von Meusen had a dress made in ochre damask with a pair of pelicans woven into the cloth, and chose to have it embroidered with gold garlands and images of the saints. Then recently in 2009 Jean-Charles de Castelbajac designed a dress in damask woven with a battle fatigue motif completely oversewn with sequins at its wide hem. No expense was spared on the dresses ordered, even though the person commissioning them had no intention of ever wearing them.
Offering lavish clothing as a gift to a statue of the Virgin, is a long established tradition in Europe, dating from the 12th century. The practice of dressing statues of the Virgin, usually with her holding an infant Jesus is found in some of the principle sanctuaries dedicated to Mary, the “Notre Dame” churches and cathedrals of Catholic Europe, located mainly in the south. Some statutes are famously known as Black Virgins as their exposed faces and hands have darkened over time.
Initially kings, prelates and other important members of a community offered a cloak to the Virgin to express their devotion. From the mid-14th century the statues of the Virgin were often fully clothed and dressed like real women of the period. An ensemble could include a wig of real hair, precious jewellery and ornaments, a crown, makeup and even perfume and undergarments, so that a statue of the Virgin Mary dressed in all her luxurious finery seemed more likely to raise lascivious than devotional thoughts in her followers, or so the Church thought. At the Council of Trent (1545-1563) the issue of Mary’s dress was debated: and since Marial worship had a large following, rather than ban the practice the faithful were instructed to dress a statue to convey Mary’s sovereign dignity and virtues.
This changed the form of her garments. The ‘dress’ became an expanse of material wrapped around the statue, leaving only the head and hands exposed, and was fastened with ties at the rear, and fell in a cone shape. The infant Jesus, held in Mary’s left hand, wore a miniature version of his mother’s dress, usually made out of the same material. Instead of forming a cone shape, his garment would fall from his face as a flat piece of bib-like fabric. Mary’s outfit was completed by a long veil, either in lace, or elaborately embroidered, or in a contrasting colour and fabric to frame the statue like a cloak. Both Madonna and Child were then adorned with crowns.
With the change in ‘dress’ came a transformation of the underlying statue. From the early period where the statues were images of the Virgin fully clothed and carved in wood or stone, to the later period, when the statue beneath the garments had ‘disappeared’ leaving only the finely worked visible parts – the carved head, hands and sometimes arms, and her feet. Beneath the garment the ‘statue’ was a structure of wooden blocks and metal supports. With this development the devotional image transferred from the statue to the garments.
At the Council of Ephesus in 431AD Mary was proclaimed the Mother of God, and consequently became the Queen of Heaven. There are over forty special feast days plus the months of May and October dedicated to Marian veneration and celebrating these occasions requires a statue in the correct attire. At Notre Dame de Fourvière in Lyon, the Madonna wears gold on her feast days at joyous times in the year, and is dressed in silver when her feast days fall during a time of penitence. In October she wears blue, for Easter Sunday red and Good Friday purple. From an inventory taken in 1897, this particular statue is known to have had seventeen dresses and six cloaks.
Other churches dedicated to Our Lady have more extensive collections, at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) the Madonna’s wardrobe runs to forty dresses, Isabella Clara Eugenia’s being one of them. The Virgin of Notre Dame de Daurade in Toulouse has a thirty piece wardrobe, the latest items were added in 2009 by the fashion designers Jean-Charles Castelbajac, Franck Sorbier and Jean-Michel Broc.
Dresses are donating to make a public display of piety or to give thanks. Marial worship looks to the Virgin to provide protection, and if this has been granted then an offering is forthcoming, as from the mother who gave a dress in red cloth embroidered with gold and bronze coloured threads depicting angels and scenes from the Apocalypse, as a way of giving thanks for the safe return of her son after WW2. The Virgin of Notre Dame de Daurade, Toulouse, protects the town and is appealed to in times of crisis, for instance flood, war or fire. At a personal level she is believed to help in childbirth, and pregnant women still continue to borrow a belt from the statue to ensure a safe delivery. When the danger has passed, protection having been given, then the statue receives a donation, or cloth towards a dress, or jewellery.
Why has the statue of the Virgin and her Child been adorned and venerated for her protective powers? Perhaps there are echoes of Eurynome, and even earlier mother-goddesses such as Isis. Others have interpreted Mary’s dress and that of her infant Jesus as a symbol of skin, and a psychological representation of the trauma of birth; from the fusion of mother and child in the first moments of life to the final acknowledgement of separation from the mother as the infant learns to be by himself.
Whatever the mystery and attraction behind the statues of the Virgin and Child which have generated the elaborate collections of garments, her image continues to give succour and peace to many that look upon her.
Covered in Glory: Cloaks for the Madonna was published in Issue 52: Botanical of Selvedge Magazine.