Egg tempera on wood, silver laquered
ground 10 3/4 by 12 1/4 inches
Sold
"...As the bush was burning
but not consumed, so didst thou give birth while yet a Virgin"
(Oktoechos, Theotokian from the Second Tome).
In Eastern Orthodoxy a tradition exists, that the flame Moses
saw was in fact God's Uncreated Energies/Glory. these Uncreated
Energies/Glory, which are considered to be eternal things; the
Orthodox definition of salvation is this vision of the Uncreated
Energies/Glory, and it is a recurring theme in the works of Greek
Orthodox theologians such as Romanides. In the Madonna of the
Burning Bush, the Virgin and her Son are pictured within a star
with eight flames or points (symbolizing the bush) and enclosed
in a cloud. This multi-rayed star is refracted into a multicolored
hierarchy of angels gathered around the Mother and Child. The
implication is that the angels rule the earthy elements through
her, the Queen of Angels. Minor angels, who are the dispensers
of the natural elements, are sometimes named with their inscriptions
(e.g, Angel of thunder and lightening; Angel of rainbows and clouds;
Angels of dew and hoarfrost, etc.) On the edges of the flames
are the Archangels, the Cherubim and the Seraphim. In every Byzantine
Liturgy the hymn is sung: "More honorable than the Cheribum,
more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, thee, who without
corruption gave birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, (Theotokos
is the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ), thee do we magnify."
In the aura of the Theotokos, every spirit has its own distinct
color, but the single ray associated with the Mother of God, the
flame that shines through her, unites in her the entire spiritual
range of the heavenly spectrum. In her the Bush is the symbol
of an embrace of the heavenly and earthly worlds, burning in a
fire without being consumed.
Mary cannot be separated from the presence of God made flesh among
us, inaugurated at her Fiat, brought to fullness at Pentecost,
and now permeating and sanctifying creation. As a visible image
of the Holy Spirit, she is revivified, deified human being, who
manifests the fullness of the divine image in humanity carrying
out the Holy Spirit's work of nurturing and sanctifying the world;
that is, continuing to give life as it did on the first day of
creation, when it 'brooded' over the face of the waters. The Spirit's
work as a kind of mothering, brought to perfection in the perfect
human mother. In Mary's womb there is a spaciousness ("Wider
than the Heavens") as there is a spaciousness in her presence
in the Church. In one of the canons which recount the mysteries
of Mary, the faithful sing: "O Virgin, past understanding
are thy wonders! Strange is the manner of thy birth, strange is
the manner of thy growing. Strange and most marvelous are all
things concerning thee…everything unutterable for humanity."
Feast days: September 4/17 and the sixth week after Easter.
