08 Works, Today, May 23rd is Saint Mary of Clopas's day, her Story in Paintings #143

Peter Dzyuba

St. Mary of Clopas

Clopas was identified as this Mary's father and the second husband of Saint Anne and the father of "Mary of Clopas", allowing Mary to be identified as the half-sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus. 

Hans Memling  (circa 1433 –1494) 

Triptych of Jan Crabbe, between 1467 and 1470

Oil on oak panel

Height: 78 cm (30.7 in); Width: 63 cm (24.8 in) (central panel)

Vicenza Municipal Art Gallery

 John is standing by the cross of Jesus with his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 

Hans Memling (c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a German painter who moved to Flanders and worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He spent some time in the Brussels workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, and after van der Weyden's death in 1464, Memling was made a citizen of Bruges, where he became one of the leading artists, painting both portraits and diptychs for personal devotion and several large religious works, continuing the style he learned in his youth. More on Hans Memling

St. Mary was one of the “three Marys” who followed Jesus, stood at the foot of the Cross when he died, and was the first to hear the news of His Resurrection at the side of His tomb. 

Caravaggio, (1571–1610) 

The Entombment of Christ, circa 1602–1603

Oil on canvas

Height: 300 cm (118.1 in); Width: 203 cm (79.9 in)

Vatican Pinacoteca 

The painting shows Jesus Christ, Nicodemus, John the Apostle, Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene  and the hysteria of Mary of Clopas in Caravaggio's The Entombment of Christ .

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 in Caravaggio – 18 July 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1592 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on Baroque painting.

Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism (the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).

He gained attention in the art scene of Rome in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. He was jailed on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death sentence pronounced against him by the Pope after killing a young man, possibly unintentionally, on May 29, 1606. He fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609. This encounter left him severely injured. A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon.

Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. More on Caravaggio

She was also among the Myrrhbearing women, who on the morning of the Resurrection of Christ went to the tomb of Christ to anoint the body of Jesus, only to discover that He had risen as He foretold. Thus she was among the first witnesses of the Resurrection.

Normally, these honours were paid at the time of the burial and the tomb was then sealed. In the Jesus' case, the anointing didn’t occur at the burial, because any time to do so had already passed, because of the strict observance of the Sabbath, which had begun at the time of the deposition of Christ from the Cross.

The Myrrh-Bearing Women arrive at the empty Tomb

Little else is known of Saint Mary of Cleopas.

According to the local tradition of the island of Zakynthos, the village of Maries, a village named after both Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleopas, is where Mary Magdalene first preached Christ crucified and risen to the locals while on her way to Rome, accompanied by Mary the wife of Cleopas. 

Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleopas disembark at Zakynthos

Tradition says their ship dropped anchor at Porto Vromi and Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleopas came ashore to spread Christ’s gospel. The footprint can still be seen on the rock. Today at Maries, Panagia Mariesotissa is the church of the village, standing below the village and housing an icon with miraculous properties.

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, and 365 Saints, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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