NEW FROM MITSUI! Our Lady Untier of Knots

It’s always a pleasure to showcase the sacred art of Daniel Mitsui. He works in various media and with a creative fusion of genres. His Archangel Michael as samurai warrior is amazing.

He has accomplished a new work, which is Our Lady Undoer of Knots.

The description from the site:

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Undoer of Knots or Untier of Knots is at least three centuries old; Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner made a painting of the subject in Augsburg around 1700.

For this commissioned work, I eschewed the Baroque style of Schmidtner’s painting, while retaining is essential elements. The style is one indebted to Gothic, Northumbro-Irish, Persian and Mexican sacred art.

The Virgin Mary I presented as the Immaculate Conception, standing over a serpent on a crescent Moon. There are twelve stars about her head, inside the halo. A dove Representing the Holy Ghost is also within the halo. Her posture and clothing have some similarity to the image of Our lady of Guadalupe. [Get this!] The cords that she is untying form elaborate knots and braids that fill a mandorla surrounding her figure, and a border to the entire drawing. As in the Baroque painting, the serpent upon which she is standing is tied in a knot; here, I depicted it with a knotted tongue also.  [Since the original is in Augsburg, perhaps that depicts the German bishop?]

The Archangel Raphael, Tobias and his dog, who appear in miniature at the bottom of Schmidtner’s painting, I depicted in the background. The spaces between the mandorla and the border I filled with orthogonal letter patterns spelling Salve Regina Virgo Maria.

Daniel’s art always has a lot going on.   You need time to look at it.    For example, a contemplative priest could say Mass for a couple of hours with his altar cards, there’s so much going on in them.

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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4 Comments

  1. carndt says:

    Thank you for exposing your readers to Daniel Mitsubishi. I have two of his works in our home. St. Patrick and his 5 x 7 Virgin and Child.

    His research and knowledge regarding ancient techniques and incorporating them into his word makes them truly unique. I’m blessed to have them.

  2. Kathleen10 says:

    How I would enjoy an exhibit of his works! I would love to see them in person, I’m sure the colors are incredible and he does put so much into each one. Even on a tiny computer image, they are impressive. It’s fun to go to his website and just enjoy his work.

  3. GHP says:

    What words are within the fretwork surrounding the inner border? It comprises letters … or initials/acronyms.

    I keep staring at the fretwork designs — there are four, one in each quadrant; each quadrant is composed of multiple blocks of letters; each block is rotated. It reminds me of the SUN (Stanford User Network) Microsystems logo that is composed of a series of the letter U to spell SUN:
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a0/Sun_Microsystems_1980s_logo.gif

    Absolutely wizard!

    –Guy

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