Our culture is full of all kinds of things that appeal to our senses. Sometimes, we see a beautiful dance performance, a great painting, or a movie that moves us to tears because of its positive message.
Yet there’s a caveat: Not everything we experience leaves us with a sense of catharsis. Sometimes, we experience something that leaves our soul feeling impure, and we ask ourselves: “Why did I even engage with this?” This question is important because it acknowledges our responsibility and discernment for what we “consume.”
Hans Memling and ‘Allegory with a Virgin’
I was looking at a painting by Northern Renaissance artist Hans Memling called “Allegory with a Virgin,” and I thought about discernment. On the surface, the painting depicts three figures: a woman and two lions. The landscape is thought to be a later addition and will not be discussed here.The woman is the focal point. She is modestly dressed with a small crown on her head. With a relaxed expression, she lowers her eyes and looks toward her hands calmly crossed and placed on the rock-like projection she sits within. This rock-like structure is amethyst, and it’s like a protective fortress around her. A fountain pours from the base of the amethyst into a small body of water that flows through the environment.
In ancient Greece, amethyst suggested sobriety and purity. In Christian culture, amethyst was associated with the spiritual purity of Christ and the purifying effects of enduring pain and suffering.
During the Renaissance, the 16th-century French poet, Remy Belleau, used a reinterpretation of a Roman myth to tell the story of a young maiden named Amethyst. Bacchus, the god of wine and intoxication, angered after someone slighted him, lashed out at the innocent passerby Amethyst and tried to hurt her. But the goddess Diana protected Amethyst by turning her into a clear stone.
After his rage subsided, Dionysus felt remorse for his actions, and to atone, he poured his wine onto the stone turning it a purple color. This purple stone, thereafter called “amethyst,” was worn to protect against intoxication.
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Returning to the painting, the two lions protect the woman and the fountain. Lions are an apt symbol of courage and strength. Yet the lions not only protect the woman and the fountain but also protect themselves with the golden shields tied around their manes.
Protecting Our Purity
In Memling’s painting shows multiple layers of protection. We could say that the woman looks down to look away and protect herself from temptation. The amethyst surrounds, protects, and maintains her purity. The lions protect the amethyst and the woman within it, but they too are protected by shields. The importance of protecting our purity cannot be overstated.
“Allegory With a Virgin,” 1479–1480, by Hans Memling. Oil on oak panel; 15 inches by 12 1/2 inches, Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Paris. Public Domain
Then, we must ask ourselves what type of purity this painting references. The title of the painting, “Allegory with a Virgin,” makes that clear if we take it literally. However, this is an allegorical painting which suggests that there’s a deeper meaning.
Does the purity here reference the purity of the soul? If so, then we must do our best to protect the soul at all costs. This doesn’t mean that we won’t fail from time to time, but that we should continue to try irrespective of our failures. Sometimes, this means that we, like the woman, look away from what might be enticing, or that we maintain an environment that keeps out what is impure, like the amethyst here does. This, however, is only one layer of protection.
Not only does virtue need protection, but virtue itself is like the layer of protection that the lions offer: an added layer of protection for our own pursuits of purity. The shields the lions wear are like the culture itself which can reinforce our pursuits of purity and its protection.
Classical and Christian humanist leaders seeing corruption in the Catholic Church sought examples of virtuous people and ideas from history. This renewed interest in virtue ushered in the Renaissance period, one of the most glorious of Western culture that has been admired for centuries and has never been surpassed.
When all of these layers—our intentions for inner purity and a pure environment, virtuous examples throughout history, and a culture that highlights virtue and purity—are present and working together in harmony, a fountain of life-giving water can flow through all areas of society, reinvigorating a culture that heaven smiles upon. How else can a Renaissance occur?
Have you ever seen a work of art and thought it was beautiful but had no idea what it meant? In our series “Reaching Within: What Traditional Art Offers the Heart,” we interpret the classical visual arts in ways that may be morally insightful for us today. We try to approach each work of art to see how our historical creations might inspire within us our own innate goodness.
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