Maria in besloten ruimte 1643 - 1710

Nicolas Bazin created this engraving of the Virgin Mary sometime between the late 17th and early 18th centuries in France. The print claims to be after an original portrait by St. Luke, housed in Rome. But what are we to make of this claim? The cult of the Virgin Mary was particularly strong in France during this period, and images of the Virgin were both devotional objects and affirmations of religious and political authority. The story that St Luke painted the Virgin Mary was a medieval legend that was widely circulated to authenticate portraits of the Virgin Mary. The inscription on the print tells us that it’s ‘the true portrait’ of the Virgin Mary. Bazin’s print thus takes part in a longer history of image-making, one in which the institutions of both church and art world played an important role in shaping the public’s understanding of religious figures. To fully understand this artwork, we need to consult both religious texts and art historical resources. We can then begin to understand how the images of the past influenced the social values of the present.