{"id":48707,"date":"2021-08-01T12:24:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T10:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/topa.be\/st-andries\/beschrijving\/sak-the-mary-chapel\/"},"modified":"2021-08-04T12:03:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T10:03:38","slug":"mariakapel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/topa.be\/en\/st-andries\/beschrijving\/mariakapel\/","title":{"rendered":"SAK The Mary Chapel"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Antwerp's St Andrew's Church, a revelation.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Mary Chapel<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Our Lady of Support and Victory<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Mary Statue <\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Statue\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Immediately after gaining back possession of their parish church in 1585, Catholic parishioners commissioned a statue of Mary. This statue is a remarkable example of a polychromed wooden sculpture in Mannerist style. The statue, which is surprisingly slender and elegant, has a particularly refined face, with cheeks covered in white make-up, as was the beauty ideal of the time.<\/p>\n

Since 1689, the statue has been known as Our Lady of Support and Victory. An eponymous fraternity was founded in the same year, in gratitude for the Habsburg victories over Muslim Ottomans in Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade. The statue\u2019s sculpted base displays the spoils of victory: the weapon arsenal of the defeated enemy \u2013 standards with the crescent moon, trumpets and drums, cannon and cannon balls \u2013 and heads of eastern enemies cruelly impaled on spears.<\/p>\n

\u2026 and Its Wardrobe<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout the year, the statue is generally displayed on the Mary altar. Our Lady of Support and Victory is clothed in an apron and short cloak, each in the fitting liturgical colours. Indeed, this statue makes use of an entire altar wardrobe consisting of cloaks in every liturgical colour. (The hand of Mary that carries the Child can be removed to simplify the dressing process.) The Christ child wears a small dress in matching tones. As such, the clothing lends colour to the intimate bond between mother and child.<\/p>\n

During the octave of Our Lady of Support and Victory and on special Marian holidays (such as the Assumption of Mary (15 August)), the statue was taken off the altar, adorned and placed onto a decorative pedestal in the centre of the church, which would later be carried around in procession. To this end, she was dressed in a long cloak with train, and decked out with accessories: a bow in matching colour around the arm, a lace collar, a silver key and a bunch of grapes. The large procession cloaks date from the second half of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. The eighteenth century saw lady\u2019s dresses of damask converted into cloaks, such as the sky blue cloak donated by the noble couple Adam of Salm-Salm on the occasion of their wedding in 1761. At times, the Watteau pleats of the original garment can still be discerned.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Dressed by Ann Demeulemeester, Fashion Designer<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The \u2018fashion year\u2019 2001 prompted the design of a contemporary dress for Our Lady. This wasn\u2019t exactly a revolutionary novelty: in Western European art, Mary had been depicted in contemporary dress for centuries. Thus, fashionable dress illustrated the enduring relevance of Jesus\u2019 gospel!<\/p>\n

As in many parish churches in the Southern Netherlands, the dressed Mary statue of St Andrew\u2019s is a so-called Spanish Madonna. The broad apron and long cloak, resting on the head and fanning out onto the floor, were inspired by fashion at the Spanish court during the fourth quarter of the 16th<\/sup> century. This Spanish outfit with cloak and train, apron, crown and sceptre became a fixture in the dressing of Mary statues in Counter-Reformation countries. The imagery of Mary was defined\u00a0 by the dress in vogue during the decades of \u2018repairs\u2019 after the Protestant Iconoclasm. This Spanish fashion withstood many subsequent trends: few if any Mary statues couldn\u2019t be defined as 16th<\/sup>-century Spanish. Examples can be found in Halle, Scherpenheuvel, Gaverland, Kevelaar, but also throughout Spain, South America, etc.<\/p>\n

Can such a \u2018Spanish\u2019 Madonna, with a traditional wardrobe that was fashionable in the period around 1600, still function sufficiently as a contemporary model for vigorous and healthy faith today? Can Mary\u2019s rich personality truly be restricted to one specific design? And \u2013 who wouldn\u2019t give a lover new clothes, from time to time? The same (style of) attire, worn for four hundred years, may express simplicity or poverty, and yet nothing beats the creativity of love. Thus, \u2018the most poetic of the Antwerp Six (fashion designers)\u2019 \u2013Ann Demeulemeester \u2013 was asked to design a contemporary creation \u2018for our beloved (lady)\u2019, alias Our Lady, in 2001.<\/p>\n

Even without using figurative elements, the designer aimed to express some of Mary\u2019s virtues:<\/p>\n