- Feb 5, 2002
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Despite being baptised in the Church of Ireland, the Irish writer Oscar Wilde was fascinated by all things Catholic. As a dramatist (in both his professional and personal life), Wilde may have been attracted in part by the high aesthetics of the Catholic Church. But when, on a visit to Florence in 1881, he stumbled on the Mother of God at her Annunciation, his expectations were upended.
You may know the Leonardo da Vinci painting of the Annunciation that Wilde saw in the Uffizi Gallery, and that he would later describe in his poem “Ave Maria, Gratia Plena.” Angel and Virgin are in classic Annunciation pose. Mary is seated at a lectern; the angel, with his mighty wings, kneels before her in obeisance. The angel is strikingly earthly (he even has a shadow). Mary seems to be, unexpectedly, the essence of calm.
The painting, Wilde’s poem suggests, is almost underwhelming. Of course, Wilde knew the scriptural story. He would have read Luke’s startling yet quiet account of the conversation between the angel and the girl that would change the world forever. Yet, as a dramatist, Wilde also knew how God could have had it play out.
In these lines he recalls the mythical, flamboyant impregnations of Danae and Semele by Zeus — how the Greek god arrived in a shower of golden stars for Danae and descended in the guise of an eagle to Semele as she bathed in a river. These scenes, he suggests, are worthy of the earth-shattering conjunction of god with woman; this is the imagery we might expect. Yet, when with such glad dreams (he) sought this holy place, the poet comes before a sign of the one God in the halls of an Italian art gallery and falls, at least metaphorically, before this supreme mystery of Love.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
You may know the Leonardo da Vinci painting of the Annunciation that Wilde saw in the Uffizi Gallery, and that he would later describe in his poem “Ave Maria, Gratia Plena.” Angel and Virgin are in classic Annunciation pose. Mary is seated at a lectern; the angel, with his mighty wings, kneels before her in obeisance. The angel is strikingly earthly (he even has a shadow). Mary seems to be, unexpectedly, the essence of calm.
The painting, Wilde’s poem suggests, is almost underwhelming. Of course, Wilde knew the scriptural story. He would have read Luke’s startling yet quiet account of the conversation between the angel and the girl that would change the world forever. Yet, as a dramatist, Wilde also knew how God could have had it play out.
In these lines he recalls the mythical, flamboyant impregnations of Danae and Semele by Zeus — how the Greek god arrived in a shower of golden stars for Danae and descended in the guise of an eagle to Semele as she bathed in a river. These scenes, he suggests, are worthy of the earth-shattering conjunction of god with woman; this is the imagery we might expect. Yet, when with such glad dreams (he) sought this holy place, the poet comes before a sign of the one God in the halls of an Italian art gallery and falls, at least metaphorically, before this supreme mystery of Love.
Continued below.
An unexpected God: Oscar Wilde's 'Ave Maria, Gratia Plena'
Discover Oscar Wilde’s complex relationship with Catholicism through his encounter with the Annunciation and his search for God’s mystery.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
