THE HOLY ROSARY OF OUR LADY

An Art Essay

Michael Morris, O.P.

Out of the garden and into the hands of millions of devout Christians, the rosary has become one of the leading meditational devices for prayer in the history of the Church.

The word "rosary" originally referred to a garden where roses grow. But today, the word refers to the chaplet or string of beads that progressively chart the mysteries of redemption. These mysteries are vividly illustrated in this early Netherlandish painting which acted as a visual aid to the chaplet prayer.

In the lower register of the painting stands the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. They are framed by a string of roses and a baldachino of honor. The area is also demarcated by a wall. This is an enclosed garden, a hortus conclusus, something that is replete with scriptural and theological symbolism.

In the Song of Solomon (4:12ff) there is a vivid account of the Beloved described is "a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up." Christians interpreted this as an image of the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, the New Eve who would lead her children back into the Garden of Paradise that had been lost by the first Eve, the mother of all the nations.

Furthermore, the enclosed garden became a symbol for Mary's womb and a sign of her perpetual virginity. In that garden, the rose stood out as the most beautiful of flowers, a plant that is continually mentioned in Scripture, associated with Mary and seen as the only flower with sufficient beauty to express the mystery of the Incarnation. For Dante it symbolized the miracle of Divine Love brought down to earth, and in the Paradiso of his Divine Comedy, Heaven itself is shaped like a rose.

"Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds," says the Book of Wisdom (2:8). To the Christian, garlands became a sign of heavenly joy, a return to the happiness of Paradise. When paintings like this began to appear with the Virgin and Child reposing in a garden surrounded by roses, so too strings of beads were progressively being used by the faithful to pray to Mary for her intercessory powers while meditating upon significant events in salvation history.

The red and white roses in the painting represent prayers. The red roses designate the Paternosters (the Our Father) and the white roses represent ten successive recitations of the Ave Maria (the Hail Mary). With each decade of the Rosary one Mystery is meditated upon. The complete Rosary canvases fifteen events drawn from Scripture and Sacred Tradition

These include the five Joyful Mysteries (the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple) seen on the top register of the painting.

On the middle register the five Sorrowful Mysteries are portrayed (the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging of Christ, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross and the Crucifixion).

The last triad portrays the Glorious Mysteries (the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost, the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin, and the Coronation of Mary).

Down below, a tonsured figure in habit kneels before the Madonna and Child. He is accompanied by a dog with a flaming torch in its mouth. This is Saint Dominic whose Order has propagated devotion to the Rosary throughout the centuries. The dog is a pun on his name and a symbol of his Order (the "Domini canes," Hounds of the Lord). The flaming torch represents the light of truth. Behind Dominic kneels a Pope, an Emperor, and a king. These represent the Christian Estates, men of power supplicating the Virgin of the Rosary on behalf of those entrusted to their care.

On the other side of the painting the Christ Child leans over to bless a man kneeling while assassins are about ready to kill him. This is a reference to a legend which claimed that a knightly gentleman escaped death by the intervention of the Virgin of the Rosary. Out of the kneeling man's mouth, prayers usher forth in the shape of roses.

"Let my prayers arise before you like incense," says the psalmist. So too this man's prayers take the form of fragrant roses. The connection between the garden and the rosary was so great that people often fashioned the beads of their chaplets from a compound made from fragrant flowers, herbs and spices. Others would attach perfumed pomanders to their rosaries. In that way the senses were invited to take an active part in the devotional exercise. In meditating, one could imagine smelling the very flowers of Paradise!

In the Garden of the Rosary, scent itself becomes a metaphor for the sweetness of prayer.

Illustration: The Fifteen Mysteries and the Virgin of the Rosary, attributed to the Netherlandish painter Goswijn van der Weyden, (1515-20)

This essay is taken from the October 2000 issue of MAGNIFICAT. Each month--along with the numerous Mass texts, morning and evening prayers, readings and poems of saints and mystics, blessings and more, it also has a wonderful "Art Essay" as well. If you like this one, why not treat yourself (or a friend) to a subscription to MAGNIFICAT?  It is magnificent! You can order it directly from the website for MAGNIFICAT.

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