3 - Intervention of the Virgin

Summary

If God gives back to Theophilus the “eyes of his heart” (Gautier 650) what will this new vision allow him to see? The answer is surely not the filthy, stinking, “ordure” that Rutebeuf used to describe Theophilus's sinful self. That image of self is based in dissemblance. The new image that Theophilus must find the vision to see is based in resemblance and thus constitutes the other side of the dynamic we used to make sense of the negative self-images in Chapter Two. But in order to move into the “region” of resemblance Theophilus will need to become a more active participant in his own vision. This active participation requires no more than simply gazing, in Cynthia Hahn's sense of the word, on the Virgin. But such a form of gazing is more than a simple turning of the eyes. “Literal gazing, in the sense of absorbed, longing visual contemplation of the image, facilitates an identification with the depicted viewer, rapt in visual absorption” (Sand Vision 19). He will also need a mediator. The Virgin and her “ymage” will play these roles. While it is tempting to turn the legend over to the Virgin once she enters the picture – some visual representations do this – the collective representations of the legend do not leave Theophilus behind at this point. The legend fuses his quest for his imago with the Virgin's own capacity to incarnate herself as “ymage,” representation, alongside her identity as imago, image of God, and her identity as a prototype capable of infusing and informing her earthly manifestation. The encounter between Theophilus and the Virgin plays itself out through the gamut of representational animation that characterizes the role of the Virgin in thirteenth-century spirituality. This runs from Theophilus's encounter with a painting, a statue, an animated statue, a vision of the Virgin, and an apparition of the Virgin herself.2 Our examination of the specific events of the intervention will follow this gamut. In this chapter we will focus above all on intervention of the Virgin and the dynamic of vision associated with the Virgin and the way these permit Theophilus to see a different image of himself.

The intervention of the Virgin takes place in several clear steps that are fairly consistent across the different textual and visual versions of the legend.