In the eyes of the Beholder

One of my dear friends had a Mary visitation this week, so to honor that I went looking for a Mary image this morning. My friend was left with some swirling images of blues, so of course this one popped out at me...

What's odd is that I don't remember taking this picture, though I know it was photographed in Assisi. I am almost always able to remember my surroundings when I look at a photograph I have taken, and not only do I not remember where I was when I shot this one, I don't remember seeing it in my file before. So that's a little strange, but... oh well!

I played with this one quite a bit before posting it this morning -- for one thing, it was apparently placed high on a wall, so the perspective was way off on Mary. I corrected that and then superimposed her on the original; you can tell because the rays don't connect properly.

I tried taking out that bare lightbulb above Mary's head, but it -- and the dark leaf and golden frame which surrounds it -- actually lends important definition to the picture, and grounds it in reality, so in the end I left it in -- which is a choice I seem to make repeatedly: to include something manmade in an image that would otherwise be otherworldly...

I also increased the saturation of the colors quite a bit, enhancing the lights and darks to bring out the faces of St. Clare and St. Francis. And when their expressions became clearer, I noticed -- to my amusement -- that while Francis is gazing at Mary open-mouthed with absolute worship in his eyes, and Mary is clearly beaming at him, Mary's body is actually turned toward Clare, which makes her expression rather coy, and Clare is looking quite bent out of shape: in fact, the smoke from Clare's lantern -- presumably a sort of censer -- was obscuring her face a bit (I confess I took out some of the incense to expose her expression more.)

I'm sure there is some sort of subtext here, and if I knew my art history better, or knew where this image actually hangs, I might be able to interpret that more effectively. For lack of any real information, though, I'll put my own spin on it and guess that perhaps the artist had some pretty old-fashioned notions about the purity of women: perhaps he thought Clare should have married the wealthy young man her father chose for her, or that it was inappropriate for her to assume the leadership role at her priory, or to travel around promoting her particular way of life. Maybe he thought Clare's vocation less true or real than Francis's vocation; perhaps he thought she was under the influence of too much incense, or that she felt Francis should have paid more attention to her than to Mary ...

So I find myself thinking about this whole question of how and what we see. While yesterday in John O'Donohue's Anam Cara I was reading about the body reflecting the spirit within, today I am reading that our internal spirit colors what we see as well as how we look:

"The human eye is always selecting what it wants to see and also evading what it does not want to see... It is a startling truth that how you see and what you see determine how and who you will be. An interesting way of beginning to do some interior work is to explore your particular style of seeing. Ask yourself, What way do I behold the world?...To the fearful eye, all is threatening... To the greedy eye, everything is a potential possession... To the judgmental eye... to see is to judge... it sees only the images of its tormented interiority projected outward from itself... To the resentful eye, everything is begrudged... To the indifferent eye, nothing calls or awakens... To the inferior eye, everyone else is greater... To the loving eye, everything is real."

So here, in this one image, we have all these different possibilities for seeing: the presumably loving eyes of Mary, the inferior and possibly loving eyes of Francis, the resentful or possibly fearful eyes of Clare, the unknown spirit behind the eyes of the artist and our own response to it all. But if I step back, disengage a bit from the interpersonal dynamics of this image (which perhaps I see because of my own experiences in the church), what I love about it is the rich blues, and the light, and the overall impression of joy and blessing and purity that pervades the painting.

What do you see?


NOTE: The John O'Donohue quotations are from Anam Cara (© John O’Donohue. All rights reserved). To learn more about John O'Donohue, be sure to visit his website: www.johnodonohue.com

Okey-doke: I just got tagged by Karen, so to honor that special friendship I'll respond:

What's your current obsession?
Revising my photographic reflections on the Gospel of Thomas for publication

Which items from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
Lee's blue jeans, Crocs, Bay Hay and Feed Sweatshirts, LL Bean turtlenecks

Last thing you bought?
A grande drip coffee for my husband, a double short short decaf breve for me and an apple fritter to share

What are you listening to?
Slow tunes by Elvis Costello -- especially Painted from Memory and My Thief

Favourite kid's film
An American Tale

Favourite Holiday Spots
Venice (and southern Italy), Shaw Island, Portland OR, Bennington VT; hope to get to Santorini someday...

What are you reading right now?
Jesus the Teacher Within (Laurence Freeman), Anam Cara (John O'Donohue), and Mary Balogh's newest romance...

Four words to describe you:
Contemplative, creative, playful, loving

Guilty pleasures?
Paul Newman's Chocolate/orange bars, lemon meringue pie, 2 1/2 Men, romance novels

Who or what can make you laugh until you are weak?
My husband, my kids, my friends, my own idiocies, 2 1/2 Men, Big Bang Theory

Planning to travel next?
Portland OR

After this?
Shaw Island and then, hopefully, London for our 25th anniversary...

Best thing you ate and drank recently?
Bacon Broccoli quiche from our old Peter Christian's Recipe Book; strawberry Prosecco from T&C (an impulse buy in the checkout line)

When did you last get tipsy?
My husband asks "How can you tell the difference?" Guess I'm always a little giddy but rarely out of control...

Favourite ever films?
French Kiss, Someone Like You, Chocolat (sorry, I'm a hopeless romantic!)

Care to share some wisdom?
Stop, look, listen; Sit. Pay attention. Breathe. Love. and listen some more. But I'd probably say something different on a different day... Be patient? Dare to hope? Trust wisely?

If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be?
I'd be stronger, more confident, more attuned to the world, more accepting of myself

I won't embarrass anyone by tagging them, but I'd love to know your answers if you want to share -- either here in comments, or on your own blog, or in a private email or facebook post to me...