The Word of Images

Perhaps, you are familiar with the famous "The Treachery of Pictures" by Rene Magritte. The one that states under the image of a pipe, that is not a pipe. One can't really argue here because it is indeed not a pipe but a painting of a pipe. Would we think of this if the words wouldn't be there, and what would be the impression if there would be just words without the image? What Magritte's paintings tend to do for me and hopefully for many others is renewing the link between the ordinary objects, semantics and our expectations.

The Treachery of Pictures, 1929
Rene Magritte

 In the similar vein the lowly reading glasses, akin to those displayed below can be seen as a helpful instrument, the sign of aging,  promotion of reading, a display of personal aesthetics and quite a lot of other things. 

But let's take a leap roughly 500 years back and see what the image of glasses represented there. We will take a look at the  "Death of the Virgin", the painting of Hans Holbein the Elder, done in 1491. He was the leading painter of the rich merchant city of Augsburg at that time, and specialized in portraits and altarpieces. The subject of the painting was common for 15th century and its representation followed the certain rules derived from the stories of Mary's death.It was said that after the Crucifixion of the Christ his mother lived with the Apostle John. She did revisited many of the places associated with the life of her son, but was getting increasingly lonely. Finally, she prayed to be delivered from life and was visited by an angel who promised that within three days she should enter Paradise where her son awaits her. The angel presented her with a palm branch sent from Heaven as assurance of victory over the corruption of death. Mary requested the presence of all the apostles at the time of her death. And that is what we see looking at the painting - all the apostles are gathered around Mary and participating at the sacrament of Last Rite.

Death of the Virgin, 1491
Hans Holbein the Elder

Despite the fact that Mary is shown as a middle class woman from Augsburg (even her halo is discreetly hidden behind the bonnet) she is impossible to miss - all the gestures and glances direct our eyes towards her. The scene of her death most always would contain the palm branch mentioned above, which usually will be in the hand of St. John (according to the legend Mary gives it to him), there would be a candle (here St. John gives it to the Virgin Mary) which symbolizes the heavenly light coming to her, there would be the scene of the Assumption painted somewhere in the painting ( we see it here above the bed), there would be an apostle with holy water, and an apostle with incense, some of the apostles would be praying and some - reading scriptures. Here though at the foot of the bed there is an interesting figure - an apostle wearing a pair of spectacles. He is the only one, aside from Mary, who is facing the viewer; he is also the closest to a picture frame, sort of a bridge between the painting with its religious subject and a real world. In fact his image looks like a painting in its own right - a portrait of a young man. (It surely showcased Holbein's skills as a portraitist). But why the only apostle who wears glasses positioned in such a manner?

Apparently, during the last quarter of the 14th century and first quarter of the 16th century, a lot of paintings of the Dormition of the Virgin from Northern Europe had an apostle holding or wearing glasses. Why?
 If we think of the main function of the glasses, it is of course to enlarge, to amplify or - using a less familiar word - to magnify something.It is said that the Canticle Hymn of Mary was sung at the time of her death. The other name of that hymn the Magnificat (My soul magnify) echoes the most famous line of it, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, ” And thus those spectacles is a reference to the Magnificat and a reminder of an archaic meaning of the word "magnify" - to praise, to exalt or to extol. At the same time the glasses with their primary function of "making something to appear larger" emphasizing  the metamorphoses of Mary’s role - from an ordinary woman she became  the Mother of God, and from the Mother of God with her death - she is becoming the Queen of Heaven.

 So, slightly paraphrasing  the famous line of Rene Magritte - those glasses aren't just glasses...