In Caravaggio's painting "The Death of the Virgin," the model for Mary was either a drowned prostitute plucked from the Tiber River or a harlot with whom the painter was in love. Or so the legend goes.
What's known for sure is that Caravaggio's commissioned painting, completed in 1603, was rejected by the friars at the Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, who thought it didn't properly reflect the Virgin Mary's divine nature as the mother of Christ.
She lies stiff on her deathbed. Her body is bloated, her feet dirty, her dress and hair disheveled. The picture of a real and mundane human death jarred Catholic officials, conflicting with their increasingly hallowed view of Mary.
Next to the engraving of "The Death of The Virgin" is a Rembrandt etching with the same title, finished 36 years later. It shows a more stately Mary, sitting in a regal bed surrounded by attendants. A light shines from the heavens, giving the pictorial a divine quality, though a doctor taking Mary's pulse hints at her humanness.
For centuries, Christians have wrestled with how to reconcile the two natures of Christ as understood by the church, a savior who is both fully man and fully God.
The debate over the nature of Jesus also spilled into the Christian perceptions of his mother. Catholics teach that Mary was immaculately conceived, and therefore without sin. They also believe she was bodily assumed into heaven three days after her death. Most Protestant churches reject those teachings.
The debates over the nature of Jesus and Mary have played out in Christian theology and in Western art. The latter aspect of the debate is the focus of an exhibition of 30 works, including the Caravaggio and the Rembrandt, now at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
"Between Heaven and Earth: Images of Christ and the Virgin," illustrates creative ways artists have dealt with the difficult issues surrounding the human and divine natures of the two figures at the center of Christian belief.
"With modern art, some people ask, 'What's the point?' " said Stephanie Schrader, co-curator of the exhibit, which runs through June 29. "These works were meant to be compelling, convincing and something that supported a particular set of beliefs."
Taking images from its own collection, the Getty show uses artists' depictions of the final days on Earth of Jesus and Mary. Some of the works have been acquired by the museum and the Getty Research Institute within the last two years.
