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.