"Madonna of the Rose Garden"
by Stefan Lochner - c. 1440

This charming, colorful Madonna, painted in the early Renaissance by Stefan Lochner, is full of allegory and symbolism. Mary is seated on a red pillow on the ground, which shows her connection to this world and to us, but she is also under the heavenly golden brocade the angels are holding, which indicates her royalty and, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, her central association with the Trinity.

The angels are playing music for Jesus and offering him flowers and fruits, many of them symbols of purity and innocence. Jesus is holding an apple, which of course refers to his role as the second Adam, undoing the curse of the first. If you look closely, Mary's broach has a maiden holding a unicorn, another widely known symbol in the Middle Ages and Renaissance of purity and innocence.

We like all these symbols. We like this representation of Mary. We like the rose bower behind her, with its symbolism of love, and-with thorns-of passion. We like the motif of Mary as the "hortus conclusus," the enclosed garden within the stone walls, one of the primary symbols of Mary in the Middle Ages. All in all, there is much to love about this picture besides its beauty. We find in it a calm and joyful meditation.
Oil on panel, 51 x 40 cm. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne.

** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a white border of about 0.5" inch for 5x7", 1.3" for 8.5x11", or 1.6" for 11x14" pictures. All Approx! Fine art printers do this because the images are almost never the same rectangular ratio of the standard paper sizes. It also gives the prints a finished look, and lets them look good in a frame without a matt.

- Acid-free paper
- Archival pigments, rated to last for generations.
- Cardboard backer
- Above story of the art
- Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal clear bag.

Thanks for your interest!
Sue & John

"In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art." ~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Sue Kouma Johnson - CatholicArtAndJewelry.