Smiling Madonna

Basilica San Vittore,

Verbania Intra.

Madonna with sunburst

After days of showers, heavy and otherwise, today is bright and breezy. No excuses - it's time to repair the damage in the garden.

One of my favourite Madonnas.

I love her sunburst halo.

Via Roma, Cannobio.

The Madonna in Marconi

Madonna and Child

Via Marconi

Cannobio

Madonna in gabbia

Caged madonna.

Piana di Vigezzo

Madonna del latte

Mild, but raining.

Madonna and Child

Piana di Vigezzo

Madonna in need of TLC

I'm without my thermometer, but given that the chickens' water is frozen for the first time this winter, I'd hazard a guess that today is the coldest yet. Morning overcast, late afternoon snowing.

Madonna and Child, Strada Cantonale, Brissago

I wonder what she's pointing at - not dropped sweet wrappers, I'll be bound!

Our Lady of Luino

The graceful, golden Madonna that greets, with an all-enveloping gesture of welcome, those arriving at Luino's picturesque harbour.

Anemone : some notes

After a sprinkling of rain late last night, more hot weather today. Soil bone dry, wooden bathtub leaking. Running water battles have broken out in the streets of Carmine among the eight under-14s currently in residence.

On the mulattiera between Carmine Inferiore and Carmine Superiore lies a small Lady Chapel with a representation of the Madonna of which I'm particularly fond. See it here. 

This detail shows that in Her hand she holds what appears to be an anemone, a flower often associated with the Virgin Mary. Like the Fleur-de-Lys (here pictured in the Annunciation gracing the walls of Carmine Superiore's San Gottardo church), the anemone in the Christian tradition symbolises the Trinity. 

The anemone was once dedicated to the Roman goddess Venus. While the goddess of love, she was also the protector of chastity in women, and, interestingly, the anemone was said to have sprung up from the spilled blood of her lover, Adonis (cf. the spilled blood of Christ and the association of the anemone with sorrow and death). 

In the Middle Ages, the anemone was called St Brigid. Brigid was a powerful abbess, and remains one of Ireland's patron saints. She is known, even, as 'the Mary of the Gaels' and is often mentioned in the same breath as the Virgin Mary. 

Both Venus and St Brigid are associated with springtime (St Brigid's festival is 1 February - Imbolc, coinciding with the Celtic festival to mark the start of spring), the season in which this type of anemone flowers. 

For myself, I just like to absorb for a moment the rich colour of the petals and the elegance of that long hand, early on a hard-pressed Monday morning. 

Pietà

Hot, hot hot. 

A day for a shady spot among the lavender, a picnic, a snooze, hide-and-seek, ice-lollies and cats lolling in the undergrowth. In the meantime, here's another Madonna for Sunday...

One third of a very moving pietà, 
Chiesa della Purificazione di Maria Vergine, Traffiume (Cannobio).

Madonna in kimono

I've taken the liberty of renaming this print by Mexican artist Jazmin Velasco. Gorgeous!

Jazmin is currently exhibiting at The Moreton Gallery and at The Biscuit Factory. Read a review here.