“The Windsock Visitation” by Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS
This is the icon used by my Visitation nuns here in North Minneapolis. When they moved to this neighborhood, they found that their traditional, European, white icons of Mary and Elizabeth did not sufficiently represent their neighbors, so they commissioned Brother Mickey to pain Mary as an African princess and Elizabeth as an African elder. Two women from the neighborhood were models for Brother Mickey to pain this icon of our monastery’s patrons.
Stone with polychromy, made in France during the late 15th-century. Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, PA, 09.SP.83.
According to the Gospel of Luke (1:39–56), after the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would give birth to Jesus, the Son of God, she traveled to visit her cousin Elizabeth. This event is commonly called the Visitation. In this 15th-century sculpture group from France, Mary (left), who is pregnant with Jesus, holds a rosary, a set of prayer beads often seen in medieval art. Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist, touches her cousin’s womb. According to Luke, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and proclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (1:42). This sculptural group may have been made for a private chapel dedicated to either Saint Elizabeth or Saint John the Baptist.
Every day, from December 1 through December 25, a new work of Nativity art from the Glencairn Museum collection will appear on our website (Follow the Star: A 2021 Advent Calendar. To receive these in your newsfeed, follow the Museum’s social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr).
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