For centuries over centuries, Christianity has been a predominant religion all around the world. Christianity’s  mission of evangelization has reached even the farthest ends of the globe with which influence has in a way, immortalized its being as a religion just as of whom the religion  fundamentally focuses on, which is Jesus Christ.

In Christian faith, Jesus Christ is believed to be the” Son of God” descended from the heavens for the absolution of our sins and for the redemption of our souls. This characterization of Christ, I find quite problematic. Simply because it is incomplete. The description above puts Christ in the truth of His divinity but fails to speak of the humanity He took on as Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, we know Christ as the Son of God but we shall also take a closer look or give emphasis to Christ too as a human son, the Son of the Virgin Mary. 

Since the earliest accounts of the Christian art, such as the ones discovered walls and ceilings in the Roman catacombs since the 2nd century and works of art during the time of the Holy Roman Empire and Byzantine Art, have in a way, made the language of art really a forerunner in being able to tell the story of Christ. The events and the people in the story of Jesus have been such an inspiration for artists. Of course, one of the most important if not the most important figure in Christ’s life on earth is Mother Mary. 

Devotional art to the Mother Mary or the Madonna has been one of the most famous. Although, there are a lot of works that only has the Virgin Mary as the subject matter, most of them have the child Jesus in the art making it “Madonna with Child”. 

One notable Madonna with Child painting is Galo Ocampo’s “Brown Madonna”. The In “Brown Madonna”, Ocampo places a Madonna and Child painting in a Philippine context. We see Mary in a typical semblance of a young Filipina mother carrying her son. 

We see the familiar Filipino setting showing a nipa hut, some bamboo stalks around, and the anahaw on Mary’s halo. On top of this, we read “Binabati kita Maria” on the large leaf Mary is holding, which is basically, a translation “Ave Maria”. Also, the frame of the painting is made of steps of varnished bamboo strips. 

I very much agree with the view of the Brown Madonna as a statement of decolonization as it shows that our depiction of Mother Mary may not visually look the same as other Madonna paintings but this must not diminish or affect the intrinsic value of one. The connection of the Brown Madonna to Christian art is that first of all, the subject matter; mother and child.

When I see Madonna with Child paintings, I see Mother Mary not as a“Divine Mother” per se but a mother-that-is-divine. This wordplay is because of what I want to emphasize about the “Madonna with Child” paintings . You can see how Mother Mary tends to her child; she carries Him, supports Him, caresses Him and in some paintings, show the act of breastfeeding the child Jesus. 

I want to emphasize Mary as a mother, just as any human one. The divinity of Mary, for me, is already implied even before the annunciation as she lived free from sin as being destined to be the mother of Christ. But taking this aside, she was just like any other loving, sweet mother – which any Filipina can be. There is that warmth of family. 

The color brown in the Brown Madonna does not only refer to the human skin, but also it could be interpreted as a color of nature; as we associate brown to soil, to the earth. It is as if it says that this, this image is an image of literally “heaven on earth”.

In this painting, the concept of the halo to signify divinity or holiness is still present and is more emphasized by the big leaves of the Anahaw plant. Honestly, those were the only connections I could draw from this painting with Christian iconography. I also think that the few connections meant this work was more of a breakthrough Christian iconography. 

I find this painting departs from Christian iconography in terms of context, dimension, threshold, focus on humanity, hierarchical scale additional significant elements. I have already discussed the difference in terms of context and the focus on humanity. I would like to explain why the Brown Madonna is different Christian iconography. 

The sense of space, depth and threshold is very notable too in Christian iconography. We can clearly see the division of the mortal and the transcendent.  One example is Carlo Crivelli’s “ The Vision of Blessed Gabriele”.

We can literally see the Madonna with child being above the Franciscan friar, coming from another “world”, presumably the heavenly world. This shows the divine presence of Virgin and Jesus that is undeniably a higher power than the human. 

In some paintings, the Virgin and Jesus are seen seemingly closer to the audience than the other subjects or bigger than the others, following the hierarchical scale avid in Greco-Romanesque art. Also, the centrality of the main elements. An example would be Fra Filipo Lippi’s “Enthroned Madonna and Child with Saints Francis of Assissi, Damian, Cosmas and Antony of Padua”. 

We can clearly see that the most important elements are in the middle of the painting and that linear perspective towards the center – which is opposite in the case of the Brown Madonna. In the Brown Madonna, the most important elements are on the lower left and the perspective of the painting seems to be spreading out like the rays of sunshine. It also does not show much difference of size in the paintings. The Anahaw leaf is huge even in reality. Nothing really unrealistically huge was in the painting. 

In conclusion, I think the Brown Madonna is a groundbreaking Christian artwork. With subjects such as the Mother Mary and Jesus, it is very hard to not make them intimidating but this is what this work did. It made them more accessible and more approachable and is this not what Christian faith tells us? 

Being a Roman Catholic myself, I am told to live by Christ and his examples. The best way I can do this is to do what is human. Christian iconography is fascinating. It makes you reflect on yourself and just gives that gravity that there is a higher power and that we are beings subject to it. The sophistication of the art shows how much majesty is given to the elements and the combination of techniques to convey what is to be conveyed.

Lastly, looking at Madonna and child paintings, no matter what ethnicity they look like, will make you feel the warmth of a mother and reflect on how much Jesus also needed one. The child in the Brown Madonna is not a baby anymore but I guess no matter what age you are, you are still your mother’s son.