Henri Matisse's Chapel of the Rosary, Part 2
by Mary Elizabeth Podles
Matisse next turned his hand to the Ave mural, an image of the Madonna, to whom the rosary is addressed. He tried out images from the Litany of Loreto, which is generally recited after the rosary and evokes the Virgin in lyrical terms ("Mystical rose, Tower of David, Tower of ivory, House of gold, Ark of the covenant, Gate of heaven, Morning star"). One drawing, illustrating the phrase "Vessel of honor," makes a curious vase shape of Mary's dress; Matisse abandoned that design as unsuccessful. In the end, he settles upon "Queen assumed into heaven," at first surrounded by roses, but in the final version by clouds.
Matisse was deeply impressed by his first plane ride, and it has been suggested that these clouds are a memory of that flight. Within the clouds, Mary presents the infant Jesus to us like a baby standing proudly for the first time, but also in the pose of the Crucifixion, so that the mystery of the Incarnation also includes that of the Passion. Yet it is a visionary and eternal image, like that of St. Dominic, levitating without ground lines or perspective.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Mary Elizabeth Podles is the retired curator of Renaissance and Baroque art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She and her husband Leon, a Touchstone senior editor, have six children and live in Baltimore, Maryland.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
29.5—Sept/Oct 2016
on Past & Present Atheism & the Invention of Happiness by Jordan Bissell
32.6—November/December 2019
The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis by Alan Jacobs by Jesse Russell
24.3—May/June 2011
The Making & Endurance of the King James Bible, 1611-2011 by Barton Swaim
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
