http://www.nb.net/~pearson/index.htm

I just remembered a thought that has me puzzled, most Icons of the Theotokos (Eastern) show her with a purple/red robe/mantle, but in most Western depictions they are blue.

The differences are due to...why ?

james

I heard once that the Theotokos is usually depicted wearing Red with a Blue mantle, meaning Humanity (Red) clothed in Divinity (Blue).
And that Jesus was usually depicted the other way around, divinity clothed in humanity.

Blue is considered the colour of Mary in the West, at least, I would guess because of this.
Filipe

In many of the approved apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she is reported as having been wearing blue and white robes. Particularly the apparition of Fatima.

That may have something to do with the Latin tradition of Mary being portrayed wearing blue.

Dear Friends,

Blue is the colour God commanded His people to wear under the Old Testament ie. the fringed garments etc.

This is why the tradition in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to wear blue cords around the neck - St Peter is said to have cut strings from his prayer shawl, which would have been blue then, and tied them around the necks of people he baptized so as not to duplicate baptism.

The Old Believers and other Orthodox use blue enamel on Crosses and in church decoration etc.

Alex

Filipe- You got it backwards; blue represents humanity, thus Mary is wearing a blue tunic. Red represents divinity, hence Mary is cloaked in a red robe. The opposite applies to Christ. Or so I was taught.
In the West blue is the color of the sky, symbolizing the Divine, and hence Mary is robed in blue.
It should be noted, as most every other "rule" in iconography, that there are exceptions, and Mary has been portrayed robed in blue in the East from time to time [the Perpetual Help icon, for one] though sticklers will insist that the color is really a species of purple, which is a species of violet, which is a species of red. Don't trust your eyes, in other words.
-Daniel

Dear Daniel,

You are correct!

Traditionally, the colour of purple is reserved to the Emperor/King alone.

Royal depictions translate the colour of purple into either blue or red.

Thus, the "redcoats" wore red to symbolize their being the "King's men" - but only the King could wear the purple.

Alex

Thank's brother Daniel...my grandaughter has me busy aquiring the bluish Icons and such.

james

Alex, you must have a chip in one of your cogs

"Filipe- You got it backwards; blue represents humanity, thus Mary is wearing a blue tunic. Red represents divinity, hence Mary is cloaked in a red robe."

or that...
This is all fascinating as it truely reminds us of the days when sacred art was the main form of cathechism for illiterate people.

Dear James,

If you mean a "blue chip," you are right!

Alex

Dear Filipe,

Yes, and even St Paul borrows royal imagery to underscore Christ's Divinity when he wrote that our Lord "sits at the Right Hand of the Father" - which the Nicene Creed included in its text.

To sit down in the presence of the king, in this case, God the Father, would mean that the Person sitting down is an Equal with the King since no one below the rank of King could sit down in his presence.

Alex
Monarchist League of Canada
Society of King Charles the Martyr
Society of King Henry VI