Theotokos, Luke 1:42 Wall Art

Tenderness in blue and red

Here the Virgin is seen from the waist up, a gold-trimmed blue maphorion drawn over her head and falling to both sides like a tent. Under it she wears a brick-red dress. She leans her head against the Child, eyes lowered, one arm supporting him from beneath and the other resting across his knees.

Jesus, a toddler with golden-brown curls and a loose ivory robe, nestles into her shoulder and gazes straight out of the picture, one bare foot dangling. There are no halos and no background, only soft paper and pooled pigment at the hem. The lettering above reads “Blessed art thou among women”, and under it Luke 1:42.

Elizabeth's cry, and what Theotokos means

Luke 1:42 belongs to the Visitation. Newly pregnant, Mary travels to see her older relative Elizabeth, herself expecting after years of childlessness. As Mary greets her, the baby in Elizabeth's womb, the future John the Baptist, leaps, and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. “And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” In the next breath she calls her visitor “the mother of my Lord”.

That second phrase is where the title Theotokos comes from. The Greek word means “God-bearer”, the one who gave birth to God. In 431 the Council of Ephesus affirmed it, not mainly to honor Mary but to state a belief about Jesus: that the child she carried was truly God and truly man in one person. Orthodox Christians use the title constantly in their hymns, and Catholics join Elizabeth's words to Gabriel's in the Hail Mary.

The pose in this painting also has a name. Icon painters call the type Eleousa, “of tenderness”, in which the Mother and Child press close together. It shows the human side of the doctrine: a woman holding a small boy.

Gifts for a christening and for mothers

Orthodox and Catholic families alike give an image of the Theotokos at a baptism, and godparents often choose one for the child's room. This watercolor is soft enough for a nursery yet traditional enough for an icon corner.

It is a fitting present for an expectant mother, a new grandmother or a woman named Mary or Elizabeth, since the verse itself is one woman blessing another. Frame it in gold or warm wood to echo the trim on the mantle.