{"id":60779,"date":"2021-10-31T17:52:19","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T16:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/topa.be\/sint-pauluskerk\/beschrijving\/spc-our-ladys-chapel\/spc-the-devotion-to-our-lady\/"},"modified":"2021-11-07T16:15:56","modified_gmt":"2021-11-07T15:15:56","slug":"mariadevotie","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/topa.be\/en\/sint-pauluskerk\/beschrijving\/mariakapel\/mariadevotie\/","title":{"rendered":"SPK Devotion to Our lady"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Saint Paul\u2019s, the Antwerp Dominican 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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Our Lady\u2019s Chapel<\/span>
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\nOur Lady of the Holy Rosary<\/span><\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\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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Further decoration of the devotion to Our Lady<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The reliefs of the Rosary stalls
\n(possibly Peter I Verbruggen, ca. 1657-1659)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\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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The wardens can attend the religious services in more comfortable stalls. Each spot aims at edification: in the panelling reliefs evoke five miracles that were credited to praying the rosary. Starting from the altar:<\/p>\n

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  1. Dominic advises\u00a0Blanche of Castile (1188-1252), queen of France<\/strong>, to pray so as not to remain childless. This accounts for the childbed as a promise in the background. She will bring Louis IX (\u2018Saint Louis\u2019) into the world.<\/li>\n
  2. While he is drowning, the irreligious\u00a0cannoneer Francis Lopez<\/strong>\u00a0receives spiritual aid from Our Lady of Manilla.<\/li>\n
  3. By praying the rosary the\u00a0inhabitants of Limoges<\/strong>\u00a0succeed in warding off the plague.<\/li>\n
  4. After first having renounced his faith, the Florentine\u00a0Dominican Antony of Rivoli<\/strong>, or Antony Neyrot, professes his Catholic faith again when he is a prisoner in Tunis. In the course of the\u00a0stoning<\/strong>\u00a0that follows his apostasy and sinful life is being forgiven.<\/li>\n
  5. In 1550 in\u00a0Barcelona<\/strong>\u00a0a woman was unjustly accused of adultery by her\u00a0husband<\/strong>, who\u00a0attempted<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a0murder<\/strong>\u00a0This was prevented by praying the rosary.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The five scenes go back to illustrations in the book of verses by father Vloers, published in 1658 and probably designed by Erasmus II Quellinus.<\/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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    The statue of Our Lady of Sorrows
    \n(Jan Pieter I van Baurscheit, 1702)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\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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    With this statue they wanted to pay tribute to prior Abraham van Greyn (\u2020 1693), who was also prefect of the Brotherhood of the Holy Rosary. The white marble work of art was dated and signed by Jan Pieter I van Baurscheit in 1702.<\/p>\n

    One can question the choice of this iconographical type. On 15th<\/sup>\u00a0September, i.e. the day after Holy Cross Day \u2018Our Lady of Sorrows\u2019 is celebrated according to the calendar of the Church. \u2018Our Lady of Sorrows\u2019 is better known by het Latin name \u2018Mater Dolorosa\u2019 or \u2018Mater Afflicta\u2019, as her praises are sung in the popular Good Friday song,\u00a0Stabat Mater<\/em>. This gave rise to a separate \u00a0devotion and thus also to a particular artistic subject matter. This is why with this iconographical type one must imagine the Crucified Jesus on her left. Her eyes remain focused on Him as it were, but in the meanwhile she frenetically keeps her hands folded at her side and beseechingly towards Heaven.<\/p>\n

    Mary is tortured by unbearable sorrow to the innermost of her mother\u2019s heart. In spite of her misery she restrains herself upright with dignity. The gesture of her frenetically folded hands is the only affected movement that crosses the contours of her body, but it is already weakened by the cloak that hangs down from her arm. On the other hand this cloak creates elegant folds and shadows around Mary.<\/p>\n

    Each of the two angels on the plinth holds an instrument of the passion in his hand and makes clear that nobody can remain unmoved at such deep sorrow. Although as\u00a0 each other\u2019s pendants they are nearly \u00a0the \u00a0same \u00a0regarding\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>pose with bended head \u00a0(and one leg playfully to the front), \u00a0they each\u00a0express their compassionate feelings in a personal way. The left one, with the crown of thorns, dries his tears with a handkerchief, the right one, with a scourge of ropes, keeps one hand in front of an eye.<\/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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    The statue of Saint Rose of Lima<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
    \n(Artus II Quellinus, ca. 1660-1670)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\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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    No saint is more appropriate to be pictured as an example for the devotion\"\" to the Rosary than Isabella Flores y de Oliva (Lima, 1586 \u2013 1617). In 1671 she was the first American, though born from Spanish parents, to be canonized. This was probably the occasion for this white marble work of art by Artus II Quellinus (which can be dated stylistically ca. 1660-1670)<\/p>\n

    To help her family, which due to investment risks had got themselves into financial troubles, she worked in the field during the day, and as a seamstress very late at night. After she had refused to get married, she wanted to \u00a0be a Dominican nun, but she was not admitted to convent life because of her weak health.<\/p>\n

    Because an Indian girl described her as \u2018as beautiful as a rose\u2019 she was nicknamed \u2018little rose\u2019 and she became a member of the third Dominican order. At her entry she called herself \u2018Rose of the Holy Virgin Mary\u2019.<\/p>\n

    As a member of the third Dominican order she wears the Dominican habit. Out of penance she wears a metal band round her head, which she hides under a\u00a0wreath of roses<\/strong>. Could this also be an illustration of her yearlong looking forward to the day of her death, as the day of her eternal marriage? She died young on 24th<\/sup>\u00a0August 1617.<\/p>\n

    Tradition goes that Mother Mary appeared to Rose and granted her the favour of carrying the Divine Child in her arms and thus\u00a0sharing her motherly feelings<\/strong>, which Quellinus represented with respectful modesty.<\/p>\n

    She is the patron of the harbour of Calloa near Lima and this explains why one of the two gracious angels at her feet is holding an\u00a0anchor<\/strong>\u00a0as an attribute.<\/p>\n

    The tissue of her habit and veil has been sublimely carved in the fine folds. Together with her young face and the affectionate relation with the infant Jesus this lends a somewhat softer character to the late Baroque style.<\/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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    Painting \u201cThe Adoration of the Shepherds\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span>
    \n(Peter Paul Rubens ca. 1609)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\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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    This work was painted in about 1609 and is supposed to be the first one Rubens painted after having returned from Italy. Apparently pretty soon bonds were established between the Preachers and Rubens. A painting of such massive dimensions (13 ft. high by 10 ft. wide) must have been intended for a large altar. Which one is unknown.<\/p>\n

    Iconography<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Rubens took over the composition of the painting of the same name that he had made only a year before for the Oratorian church in Fermo, but due to his steady evolution towards Baroque this work already shows freer and stronger technique. As he was still heavily influenced by Caravaggio Rubens mainly used brown hues and an outspoken chiaroscuro. This way of illumination has been used here to illustrate the spiritual meaning of the infant Jesus as \u2018the Light of the world\u2019, or as His birth has been described in the more elaborate Nicene creed: \u201cLight of Light\u201d. Because Mary wants to show her New-born Child to the shepherds rushing in and folds back the cloth, the light can emanate from the Divine Child. For the shepherd who is standing on the extreme left, the light seems to be too strong, which is why he protects his eyes. In this way he illustrates \u2018the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light\u2019 (Mt. 4:16). Also symbolic are the ears of corn in the manger: they refer to \u2018the bread that came down from Heaven\u2019 (John 6:41).<\/p>\n

    However static and stereotyped the scene may seem at first sight, Rubens has managed to create more movement in it. Although all four shepherds and shepherdesses share the same admiration, each of them has been individualised by a gesture of his or her own and thanks to an astonishing foreshortening an angel tumbles down from heaven in an unseen spectacular acrobatic feat.<\/p>\n

    After it had been confiscated by the French in 1794, the painting could fortunately return after Napoleon\u2019s defeat at Waterloo. The gigantic canvas still bears traces of the heroic rescue operation during the disastrous fire in 1968, when it had to be cut out of its frame.<\/p>\n

    The oil sketch or modello (of the Fermo version), which is kept in the Hermitage in Saint-Petersburg, is dated there at 1608.<\/p>\n

    Next to this painting there is\u00a0Dominic\u2019s self-chastisement at Segovia<\/em>\u00a0(Gaspar de Crayer, about 1655). This painting used to be on Saint Dominic\u2019s altar, north of the choir screen. Dominic\u2019s back shows traces of blood of the scourge and around his waist he is wearing a chain with a heavy stone at a very sensitive spot. Mary appears to him to soften his pains.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\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

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