The Virgin Mary: Woman, Mother, Queen

The Family Tree of the Virgin Mary. A drawing from the manuscript from the book from the library of the Tallinn Dominican Friary, Innocentius III. Ritus celebrandi officium missae. Tractatus de sacramentis. Versus. 13th–14th century. Tallinn City Archives

On the trunk of the three-branched tree, St Anne’s face is depicted inside a medallion shaped like a leaf, and the branches bear the families of the daughters Anne had from her three marriages. The middle branch carries the Virgin Mary and three leaves grow out of it, the most imposing of them symbolising Christ. The other two branches represent the families of Anne’s two other daughters, Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome.

Wings of the altarpiece from the Kaarma church. Holy Kinship on the outer sides of the inner wings. Jacob van Utrecht, Lübeck workshop. 1520s. EELC Kaarma Sts Peter and Paul Congregation

The mother of the Virgin Mary, Anne, and the legend of her three marriages are at the centre of the Holy Kinship. In the story of Christ’s maternal family, St Anne and her three daughters are the most significant women. Anne is sitting in the foreground, holding the small Christ Child. Opposite them is the Virgin Mary, inviting the child into her embrace; next to her is her sister Mary Cleophas, with her four sons: James the Lesser, Joseph the Just, Simon and Judas Thaddeus. Anne’s third daughter, Mary Salome, is with her, as well as Mary’s sons James the Greater and John the Apostle. According to the legend, five of Jesus’s cousins were also his apostles.
The wings of the altarpiece were parts of the altarpiece of the Kaarma church, assembled from the parts of several retables in 1547 as a donation from the owner of the Kaarma manor, the administrator of the Saaremaa diocese Berent Berg and his wife Jutta von Uexküll. The work has been deposited in the Saaremaa Museum.

The Holy Kinship Altarpiece. Original location: one of the churches of Tallinn. Brussels workshop. Around 1500. Art Museum of Estonia

The late medieval pictorial programme of the altarpiece was dedicated to the Holy Kinship. Only three of the original figures of the corpus have survived: the Virgin Mary, her sister Mary Salome, with her son James the Greater, and their mother St Anne. They were surrounded by the other members of the Holy Kinship, with their children.
The original location of the altarpiece is unknown, but it is very likely it came from one of the churches of Tallinn. In 1652 the town council of Tallinn sold the altarpiece to the Jüri church in Harju County and the pictorial programme of the work was changed at that time. Beginning in 1870, the work was located in the Provincial Museum of Estonia, and since 1940 it has been in the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia.

The Holy Kinship Altarpiece. Original location: one of the churches of Tallinn. Brussels workshop. Around 1500. Art Museum of Estonia

The outer sides of the wings of the Holy Kinship altarpiece present four scenes from the lives of the grandmother of the Virgin Mary, Emerentia, and Mary’s mother Anne. In the first painting, Emerentia is on Mount Carmel together with the Carmelite monks and receives a vision that she will become the progenitor of Christ. A plant is growing out of her womb, with the Virgin Mary as its flower and Christ as its fruit.

The Holy Kinship Altarpiece. Original location: one of the churches of Tallinn. Brussels workshop. Around 1500. Art Museum of Estonia

The second picture depicts the birth of Anne, the third the marriage of Anne and Joachim, and the last one presents Anne and Joachim giving alms to the poor. Anne’s life story followed the tradition of the Old Testament, where mothers chosen by God were childless for years before giving birth.

St Anne with the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. Original location: the Kaarma church. 15th century. EELC Kaarma Sts Peter and Paul Congregation

Anne, clad in red and green garments, is holding her daughter, the Virgin Mary, in her left arm. The figure of the Christ Child, in her right arm, has not survived. During the Middle Ages, red and green became Anne’s colours: the first of them symbolises love and the latter rebirth, referring to her being the one who gave birth to the Virgin. The sculpture, found in the 1990s in a room on the first floor of the tower of the Kaarma church, is located in the Saaremaa Museum.

The Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. Original location: the Kaarma church. 13th century (1270s). Saaremaa Museum

Originally of exceptional quality, the sculpture has been damaged through the centuries: the right side of the figure of Mary and most of the bench have perished. The sculpture, made in the 1270s, probably originates from Lübeck and is one of the oldest surviving medieval sculptures in Estonia. It was found in the late 19th century in the space above the vaults of the Kaarma church and was taken to the museum of the Research Society of Saaremaa.

The Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. Original location: the Ruhnu (Runö) church. Around 1300–1320. National History Museum of Latvia

The Virgin Mary is seated on a low bench. In her left arm, the Christ Child is looking at his mother.
The Ruhnu sculpture have been dated to a period prior to the first records of the island, in 1341. Until 1774 the six medieval sacred statues were located on the high altar of the Ruhnu church, and then they were placed in an outer niche above the entrance to the church. Only four of the six sculptures have survived. In 1892 the sculptures were taken to the Riga Cathedral Museum; since 1930 they have belonged to the collections of the National History Museum of Latvia.

St Anne or the Virgin Mary. Original location: the Ruhnu (Runö) church. Around 1320. National History Museum of Latvia

A woman is seated on a throne, gazing towards the viewer. Both of the hands of the figure have been broken off. It is likely a sculpture of the Virgin Mary originally with the Christ Child in her arms, but it has also been assumed to depict St Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary.

Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Panel painting from a retable. Original location: Sebenstein Castle near Wiener Neustadt. Master of the Lichtenstein Castle. Around 1445. Art Museum of Estonia

The Virgin Mary, with the Christ Child in her arms, is standing in a small church. Mary is handing the child to Simeon, a pious old man who was told by the Holy Spirit in a vision that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. A young woman is standing on the right-hand side of Mary, bearing a basket with two doves as a purification offering. In accordance with the Law of Moses in the Old Testament, the parents of a newborn could, after 40 days of purification, present the child in the temple and sacrifice a pair of doves.
The painting was originally a part of an altarpiece consisting of sixteen panels located in the castle of Sebenstein near Wiener Neustadt. Fourteen of the panels from the altarpiece depicting the life of the Virgin Mary and Christ have survived and belong to different art collections all over the world. The Tallinn painting initially belonged to the collection of the Liphardts and was located in Tartu, in the Raadi Manor.

The Virgin Mary in Childbed. Original location: the Vormsi (Ormsö) church. Second half of the 14th century. The Estonian-Swedish organisation Friends of Swedish Culture (Svenska Odlingens Vänner)

The Virgin Mary in Childbed depicts the young mother resting together with her newborn child. The nativity scene has here been reduced to the most significant elements: the mother and son. The sculpture, which could either have been independent or a detail from an altarpiece, was located in the Vormsi church until the Second World War. In 1944 the Estonian Swedes fleeing from the island took the sculpture with them and it was deposited in the Swedish History Museum until 2006. Today it is located in the Tallinn Swedish Church of St Michael’s.

The Virgin Mary and the Christ Child with a Rosary. Original location unknown. Around 1500. Tartu Art Museum

The seated young mother has lowered her gaze, and her son, in her lap, has turned his gaze towards the viewer. The Christ Child is holding a rosary made of pearls and precious stones: in the Middle Ages, the Virgin Mary or the prayer Ave Maria was compared to the heavenly rose. Each bead in the rosary marked a different prayer. The number of beads in a rosary varied. The rosary in the painting indicates five groups of ten Ave Maria (Hail Mary prayers); after each ten prayers, a Lord’s Prayer followed. Before the Second World War, the painting was part of the collection belonging to Professor Karl Schlossmann, the first President of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tartu.

The Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. Original location unknown. Around 1500. Art Museum of Estonia

The Virgin Mary, clad in a golden cloak, is holding in her arms the Christ Child, who is gently touching his mother’s chin. The masterfully executed relief presents the original rich gilding and polychromy. We can see the colours of the Virgin Mary – blue and red – in her dress and in the lining of the golden cloak. Reliefs of St Peter and St Paul, similar in size and style, also belong to the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia. All three were originally parts of the same altarpiece.

The Virgin Mary with the Christ Child from the altarpiece of the Lääne-Nigula church. Around 1510-1520. Art Museum of Estonia

The crowned Virgin Mary is standing as the Queen of Heaven, holding the Christ Child. The masterfully executed sculpture was probably made in Lübeck and has been attributed to the prominent woodcarver Henning van der Heyde. Together with St Nicholas and John the Apostle, it is one of the three surviving figures of saints originating from the corpus of the altarpiece of the Lääne-Nigula church. The work reached the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia probably in 1921. The corpus and its wings were destroyed in the Second World War.

Four saints are standing on the closed wings of the altarpiece: the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, Apostle James the Greater, St Adrian and St Anthony the Great. These re-paintings date back to approximately 1520, as the wings originally depicted four Franciscan saints. An earlier image was partly used in painting the Virgin Mary. She is handing a white rose to the Christ Child – a symbol of virginity and paradise, marking the unity of Christ and the church, mother and son.
The altarpiece may originally have been commissioned for a church of the Franciscans. After the repainting of the outer wings of the 1520s, it was probably located on the altar of the private chapel of the Lippe family, located in the cloister of the Tallinn Dominican Friary. It is likely that the saints on the outer wings were painted by the Tallinn-born Netherlandish artist Michel Sittow, who lived in Tallinn during the last years of his life, in 1518–1525. In the Lutheran period, in the mid-16th century, the altarpiece was turned into an epitaph and it was located in St Nicholas’ Church until the Second World War.

The Annunciation. Baptismal bowl. Nuremberg workshop. 15th–16th century. Art Museum of Estonia

The scene of the Annunciation is depicted in the middle of the baptismal bowl. The kneeling Archangel Gabriel, holding the sceptre, a symbol of power, is addressing the Virgin Mary standing behind a lectern, bringing her the joyous news of the imminent motherhood of the Virgin. Above Mary’s head is the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the rays proceeding from it symbolise the Immaculate Conception. Similar baptismal bowls adorned with biblical scenes were, during the 15th to 17th centuries, predominantly made in Nuremberg. The widespread bowls had both secular and religious uses. In Estonia, similar bowls were used in baptisms primarily during the Early Modern Period. This particular bowl originates from the private collection of Johannes Mikkel.

The Retable of the High Altar of St Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn. Workshop of the Lübeck Master Hermen Rode. 1478–1481. Art Museum of Estonia

On the left wing of the closed position of the altarpiece, the Virgin Mary is standing as the Queen of Heaven, together with the virgin saints St Catherine and St Barbara. The Christ Child is wearing a rosary. His right hand is touching the martyrdom attribute of St Catherine, the sword. This refers to the saint’s dream in which the Virgin Mary gave her away in a mystical marriage to Christ.

The second view presents the scene of the Double Intercession, in which Christ, accompanied by angels holding his attributes of Passion, is kneeling in front of the enthroned God the Father. John the Baptist is standing on the right, and the Virgin Mary on the left; at their feet are kneeling donors. The Double Intercession carried the idea of gradual salvation. The Virgin Mary, baring her breast, which nurtured her son, turns to Christ to pray for the salvation of the people; Christ, pointing at the wound in his side, appeals to God the Father, who sends the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove as a symbol of his grace.

The closed position presents the Annunciation; the Archangel Gabriel, holding a lily branch, addresses the Virgin Mary, who is holding an open book. There is an empty band of text between them, symbolically presenting the opening words of the angel’s greeting: “Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus decum.”
The altarpiece was commissioned by the Brotherhood of the Black Heads and the Great Guild, probably for the altar of the Virgin Mary in St Mary’s chapel of the Black Heads, in the church of the Tallinn Dominican Friary. It reached Tallinn in 1493. Fearing the iconoclasm, the Black Heads brought the altarpiece to the house of the Brotherhood in 1524, where it remained until the Second World War.

The Nativity. Ceramic mould. Mid-15th century. Find of the archaeological excavations in Jahu Street, Tallinn in 2018. Tallinn University Archaeological Research Collection

The quadrangular ceramic mould depicts the birth of Christ. The newborn Christ Child, surrounded by a halo, is lying on the ground in a ray of light. The Virgin Mary and Joseph are bowing to him in prayer. There are three angels above the Christ Child, holding a band with a Latin text reading “Gloria in excelsis Deo” or “Glory to God in the highest”. The cited scripture, announcing the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, is from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2:14).

Christ Child with a Bird. Religious clay figurine. Mid-15th century. Tallinn University Archaeological Research Collection

The Christ Child with the Attributes of the Passion. Clay positive of a mould. Mid-15th century. Find of the archaeological excavations in Jahu Street, Tallinn in 2018. Tallinn University Archaeological Research Collection

The Christ Child with the attributes of the Passion was a sacred image widespread in the Middle Ages, used in private devotion and prayer. The naked Christ Child, bearing a crown of thorns and a cross, is framed by a band of text with the words from St Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10–11).

Allegorical Vine Tree with Christ on the Cross, the Virgin Mary and God the Father. Ceramic mould. 15th century. Find of the archaeological excavations in the Pirita Nunnery in 1975. Tallinn City Museum

The round ceramic mould depicts the Crucified Christ on a vine tree. On medallions growing out of its branches, the twelve apostles are looking towards him. Above the Crucified Christ’s head is the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, together with bands of text. Under the cross, God the Father is hoeing the soil. The allegorical scene depicts the Crucified Christ on a tree of life, together with his heavenly father and earthly mother.

Annular ring brooch with the inscription AVE MARI(A). Stray find from the Karja churchyard in Saaremaa. 13th–14th century. Estonian National Museum

The Virgin Mary as the Woman of the Apocalypse and the Madonna on the Crescent Moon (Mondsichelmadonna). On the back-side, St Christopher. Silver capsule medallion. 15th–16th century. Estonian National Museum

The Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. On the back-side, the Veil of Veronica. Silver capsule medallion. 15th–16th century. Estonian National Museum

The Virgin Mary as the Woman of the Apocalypse and the Madonna on the Crescent Moon (Mondsichelmadonna). Silver with gold gilt medallion, semi-precious gemstones (?). 15th–16th century. Estonian National Museum

The Crucifixion Group with the inscription IHESUS UNDE MARIA. Silver medallion. 15th–16th century. Estonian National Museum

Silver ring with the Crucifixion Group. Ring of a nun from the Pirita Bridgettine Nunnery (?). 15th–16th century. Estonian National Museum

Golden ring with a heart and the name of Mary. 15th–16th century. Estonian National Museum

Adam and Eve. Outer side of the wings of the altarpiece. Original location: one of the churches of Saaremaa. Around 1600. Saaremaa Museum

Since the days of Early Christianity, the Virgin Mary has been referred to as the second Eve and Christ as the second Adam. Eve closed the Gates to Paradise, with death and sin following her, while the Virgin Mary opened them, bringing eternal life and salvation. As the first woman, Eve was the mother to all living beings, and the Virgin Mary a mother to all Christians. The first word in Ave Maria is an anagram of a variation of Eve’s name. Despite her sin, the comparison with Mary raised Eve to glory, since it was through her that the birth of Christ and salvation became possible. The wings of the altarpiece depicting Adam and Eve originate from the Lutheran period; the inner sides of the wings present scenes from the story of the Passion of Christ. At the turn of the 16th–17th century, most of the churches on the island received new altarpieces with Lutheran pictorial programmes.

Adam and Eve on the Allegory of the Law and Grace. Epitaph of Dietrich Möller. Original location: St Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn. Lübeck workshop (?). 1614. Art Museum of Estonia

The left side of the picture, based on the typology of the Old and the New Testament, depicts the Law and the Fall of Man, and the right side Grace or salvation. The left side presents the story of Adam and Eve. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is in the foreground; the serpent holding the apple in its mouth is in the branches. Adam and Eve, who have tasted the fruit, are standing under the tree. The next scene shows their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. In the foreground of the right side of the painting is the crucified Christ. Above him, on the right, there is a figure surrounded by an aureole, probably the Virgin Mary. The painting presents Adam and Eve from the Old Testament, as well as Christ and the Virgin Mary, who made salvation possible. The allegory of the Law and Grace was among the first new Lutheran types of images, initially spread through printmaking.

Adoration of the Shepherds. Epitaph painting. Original location: the Türi church. 1692. Art Museum of Estonia

The Gospel of Luke describes the shepherds who came to worship the newborn baby Jesus (Luke 2:1–20). In the biblical scene, the kneeling shepherds surround the mother and son. The epitaph painting was donated to the Türi church by two local peasants, Hans and Jaan. Their portraits and names are visible on the frame of the painting. It is the only known example of local peasants having donated to a church an epitaph commemorating themselves, and commissioning their portraits for the purpose. Since the 1920s, the painting has belonged to the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia.

Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi and the Holy Kinship. Triple painting, with scenes of Christ’s childhood. Original location: St Nicholas’ Church (?) in Tallinn. 17th–18th century (?). Tallinn City Museum

The narrative scenes present the two central gospel stories of the nativity, telling of how first the shepherds and then the kings came to worship the newborn Jesus. The upper painting depicts Jesus as a boy, together with his mother Mary and Joseph. At the end of the 19th century, the triple painting was located in St Anthony’s Chapel in St Nicholas’ Church.

Calvary Group. Christ on the Cross. Last quarter of the 14th century. The Virgin Mary and John the Apostle. 1410s to 1430s. Former location: the Harju-Risti church. Art Museum of Estonia

The Crucifixion of Christ is the most significant and most depicted scene in Christian art. Its focal point is Christ on the cross and the bereaved Virgin Mary with John the Apostle. Mary, standing underneath the cross with her head bowed, has been depicted as a young and beautiful virgin. John, the closest disciple to Christ and also the youngest, is standing to the left of the cross. The ends of the cross are lily-shaped, referring to the Virgin Mary as the bearer of Christ and Life-Giver. The Calvary Group was located in the Harju-Risti church, which served as a chapel of the Cistercian Monastery in Padise in the Middle Ages.

The Bereaved Virgin Mary from the Crucifixion Group. Original location: the triumphal wall of St John’s Church of Tartu. Second half of the 14th century. EELC Tartu University St John’s Congregation

The life-size terracotta figure of the Virgin Mary is a part of the Crucifixion Group of St John’s Church in Tartu, originally located on the eastern wall of the triumphal arch.
Of the churches in Europe, St John’s Church in Tartu has the richest terracotta decor. Almost a third of the approximately 2000 sculptured works and components have survived.

The Passion Altarpiece. Workshop of the Bruges master Adriaen Isenbrandt. 1510–1520. Overpaintings of the outer side of the wings by Michel Sittow and his workshop (?). 1520s. Art Museum of Estonia.

The middle panel of the altarpiece, dedicated to the story of Christ’s Passion, depicts the crucified Christ with his mother, the Virgin Mary, the kneeling Mary Magdalene and John the Apostle. The bereaved mother is standing with her head lowered and her hands together in prayer, expressing both sorrow and her acceptance of God’s will. The original portraits of the donors were repainted during the Lutheran period, in the mid-16th century, when the altarpiece was used as an epitaph, or the commemorative image of the Tallinn Superintendent Heinrich Bock and the mint master Urban Dene.

The Fainting Virgin Mary with John the Apostle and Mary Magdalene. Fragment of the scene of the Crucifixion from the altarpiece. Original location: the Haapsalu Cathedral. Around 1500. EELC Haapsalu St John’s Congregation

As a witness to Christ’s crucifixion, the Virgin Mary has fainted from the pain of seeing her son suffer. The bereaved mother is supported by John the Apostle, to whose care Christ had entrusted his mother. Mary Magdalene is with them. The group of sculptures were originally a part of a larger scene of the Crucifixion of Christ on an altarpiece. Until the Second World War, the relief was located in the Haapsalu Cathedral. After the war, its location was unknown for a long time. Since 2004, the work has been back in the Haapsalu Cathedral.

Pietà. Mourning Virgin Mary with her Dead Son. Original location: St James’s Church in Riga. Around 1400. National History Museum of Latvia

The Pietà depicts the mourning Virgin Mary holding her dead son. This type of image, which developed in the high Middle Ages, communicated to the viewer the suffering and sorrow of Christ and his mother. The image, representing motherly love and the pain of the Virgin Mary, is symbolically opposed to the type of image where the young mother is happily holding her newborn son.
The sandstone sculpture, originally polychrome, was located in St James’s Church in Riga during the Middle Ages. In the 18th century it was taken to Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Riga. Since 1940, the sculpture has been in the collection of the National History Museum of Latvia.

Seven-armed Candelabrum of the Virgin Mary. Lübeck Foundry. 1519. Art Museum of Estonia

Six curved arms designed as plant stalks are attached to the shaft of the candelabrum, symbolising the Tree of Life and the bearer of light. In the centre, there is a double-sided enthroned figure of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, surrounded by an aureole, on a crescent moon. The Madonna of the Crescent Moon, referring to the Virgin Mary as the Woman of the Apocalypse and the Queen of Heaven, was a widespread type of image in the 15th century, based on the text from the Book of Revelations.
The four-metre-high brass candelabrum is one of the largest medieval candelabra in the world. It was donated to St Nicholas’ Church in 1519 by the Tallinn merchant Hans Bouwer. In accordance with his will, it was commissioned from Lübeck and donated for the high altar of the church.