Educational Functions of Visual Representation in Christianity in the Middle Ages(<Special Issue>Religious Education and Transmission)

Abstract

There are many significances and functions of religious art. Visual images and structures which are concerned with religions not only embody religious experience and belief, but also work as educational media in religious practice. As examples of the Marian beliefs and images of the Holy Trinity there are so-called "opening Virgins" (Vierge ouvrante, Schreinmadonna). This statue, the small nursing Madonna, opens to show the Holy Trinity inside. The devotional object indicates the idea that Mary is the tabernacle that houses God. On the other hand this image suggests the doctrine of the Incarnation. Further, there are interesting examples that depict the figure of Jesus' grandmother Anne. Some visual representations such as Anna Selbdritt, which has Anne holding the Virgin Mary and Child, stress the female lineage of Christ. This image shows at once the belief of Immaculate Conception and the educational function. Iconographic motifs such as the Nativity with Joseph, the Anna Selbdritt, the Holy Kinship, the Education of Mary, and stories of the childhoods of Jesus and Mary were popular with folk traditions and stressed the importance of family ties. Visual images in religious practice responded to the question of both personal salvation and folk spirituality and worked in the educational context as well.