You are beautiful, my friend

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Michaela

Last year I was drawn to Giotto’s breathtaking expressions of the Madonna and child.
This Christmas I am marveling at the beauty of Van Eyck’s take on the symbolism of the Birth and the Mother’s Love for her child.

This one is the “Madonna at the Fountain” from 1435.

Eyck_fountain_Antwerpen

complemented with this beautiful motet from Monteverdi’s Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, composed about 150 years later.

Pulchra es, amica mea,
suavis et decora, sicut Jerusalem
terribilis ut acies ordinata. Averte oculos
tuos a me, quia ipsi me avolare fecerunt.

Thou art beautiful, O my love, fair and comely as Jerusalem: terrible as an army with banners. Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.

About Michaela

I am a wanderer and a wonderer, like you are. I love our journey and to walk in the company of friends – to learn, experience, share, laugh, cry and above all I simply love this marvelous, magical, mysterious life. I have no plan (cannot believe I am saying this) and my only intention is to be truthful to myself and others.
This entry was posted in Christmas Carols & songs, Musica Sacra and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s