José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ

Benedicta in mulieribus. The Virgin Mary as a paradigm of women in the patristic tradition and its possible reflection in Spanish Gothic painting

Benedicta in mulieribus. La Virgen María como paradigma de la mujer en la tradición patrística y su posible reflejo en la pintura gótica española

Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages

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From the first centuries of the Christian era the Virgin Mary became in respect of the believers a sublime and inimitable model of human, moral and spiritual virtues. This fact has been staged by researchers on Marian iconography as a self-evident axiom, which need not be explained or justified documentarily. Going against this uncritical stance, this paper aims to explain, through a lot of theological and patristic citations, three fundamental aspects or attributes, in which, among many others, the paradigmatic character of Mary becomes real: her supereminence in comparison with the other women, her supereminence in comparison with the other creatures, including angels and saints, and her intercession before God on behalf of human beings. We complement our study by a comparative analysis through which we attempt to relate these patristic and theological sources with some Spanish Gothic paintings in which the three mentioned aspects of the analyzed Marian doctrine could be reflected in some way.