Saturday, August 23, 2008

Luminous Mother of Light - Ina ng Liwanag at Pagmamahal

The image above, by Araceli Dans, is the first depiction of the Virgin Mary by an award winning artist in what would be considered Filipino attire. Baro at saya is what the blouse and skirt are called. Tapis is the term for the sash over the Blessed Mother's shoulder. The lacework, calado.

The genesis of the painting was when Dans visited the Luminous Cross of Grace shrine in Agdangan, Quezon with her niece last September. In the Araceli Dans' native language the piece is titled “Ina ng Liwanag at Pagmamahal.” Dans has said that she feels her life's work has been a preparation for the creation of this work.

As for the Filipino attire, “I wanted an image of the Blessed Mother that the suffering Filipinos can connect and identify with,” Dans said.

1 comment:

Kim said...

That's really beautiful! I've never seen a depiction of Mary that looks anything like that. We learned in our apologetics class about how Mary appears to people looking like "one of them," like how she appeared as (looked like) a Mexican princess to Juan Diego. Anyway, thanks for sharing this. Have a great day!