A Virginal Model: A Foray into the Devotional Practice in Female Monastic Life of Iberia

 Emily Kelley

Cornell University

ek236@cornell.edu

Paper Abstract for the 41st International Congress on Medieval Studies

Worldwide Universities Network (WUN): The Arts of Meditation

This paper examines the relationship formed by the devotee and sacred figures in a set of 14^th century images from the chapel of St. Michael at Pedralbes, a convent of Poor Clares in Barcelona. These works were commissioned for the private chapel of the abbess and completed in 1346 by Ferrer Bassa.  The scholarship that has addressed these paintings to date has been focused either on attributing the artist’s hand or exploring possible connections to Giotto’s Arena Chapel. Rather than continue in this traditional mode of scholarship, my research has focused on the use of these images as devotional tools meant for the abbess’s private meditations. Though these images do not appear to relate directly to any of the texts known to have been owned by the convent, we know from the commission records that they are depictions of the Seven Joys and Seven Sorrows of the Virgin. Therefore, since the Pedralbes images are based on a Mary’s experience of the events in Christ’s life, they demonstrate a marked difference from more typical Passion-centered visual meditative tools such as the Kaufmann Crucifixion and the Röttgen Pieta, which favor images of Christ’s pain and suffering. At Pedralbes, in contrast, Christ’s suffering is minimized and the focus is placed on the role of the Virgin in each scene. This group of images therefore emphasizes a direct association between the Virgin and the devotee which allows for a more intimate relationship between the two. Particularly significant to my argument is the Virgin’s physical appearance in each scene, which serves as a tool by which the female viewer would have been able to associate herself more intimately with the scene and thereby deepen her spiritual contemplation.