The Snake Goddess and Visitation: A comparison/Contrast

The role of women in history cannot be ignored.  Throughout the world and history, most cultures and society have been male dominated, but without women, there would be no men.  Women are the ones who bear children and therefore are indispensable to any society that does not want to die.  The statues The Snake Goddess and Visitation prove that the fertility and process of childbearing that are a part of the lives of women have always been a fascination of mankind.

            The Snake goddess is a statue found at the Palace at Knossos on the island of Crete at the early part of the twentieth century.  The palace is thought to have been built during the fourteenth century B.C.  It is not easy to describe the nature of the mother-goddess of Crete.

There are numerous representations of goddesses, which leads to the conclusion that the Cretans were polytheistic, while others argue that these represent manifestations of the one goddess. (Entrance to the Shrine).  This would make it part of the Ancient Artistic Period.  The statue is of a woman holding out a snake in each of her hands.  There is speculation that the snakes represent the male’s role in reproduction.  It is obvious that she is a fertility symbol because so much about her points to the features of a woman that makes her able to bear children.

In its present condition, the dominant colour of the skirt and the bodice is a darkening golden yellow. Elizabeth Barber has pointed out that yellow is a woman’s colour in the ancient world. (Witcombe)

Her breasts are bare indicating the role that the woman’s body had in the survival of the infant, while her waist is girded to display the curves of her body that is designed to change shape during the time of pregnancy.

            The Visitation is a sculpture from the thirteenth century in Reims, France.  The subject of Visitation is Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah and the cousin of the Virgin Mary.  According to the New Testament, Elizabeth and her husband were advanced in years when an angel visited them and told them that they would have a son and they were to name him John.

Not only are the jamb statues completely free from the architectural setting, but they are also practically (yet not totally) classical in composition. Note especially the naturalistic poses, graceful gestures and fluid drapery. (High and Late Gothic). Visitation depicts the visit the Virgin Mary visited her cousin, Elizabeth, because they were both experiencing miraculous pregnancies. The statue was sculpted during the Romanesque Period yet the cathedral itself is considered Gothic.

Then arose new architects who after the manner of their barbarous nations erected buildings in that style which we call Gothic (dei Gotthi).” Florentine historiographer Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was the first to label the architecture of preceding centuries “Gothic,” in reference to the Nordic tribes that overran the Roman empire in the sixth century. Vasari implied that this architecture was debased, especially compared to that of his own time. (Chapuis)

While the sculptors of both statues, The Snake Goddess and Visitation is

unknown, they are both celebrating the miracle of conception, pregnancy, and birth.  The Snake Goddess and Visitation have a religious connotation.  One is the goddess and Elizabeth and Mary represent the bearing of two religious figures.  They are both seen with fascination and reverence.

            The focus on The Snake Goddess is on the sexual aspect of fertility.  Everything about her is in celebration of the importance of a woman’s sexuality.  Her breasts are large and exposed to symbolize the femininity of the female body and its usefulness in the nourishment of the child.  Elizabeth and the Virgin Mary are fully clothed and their pregnancies are concealed, proving that the early Christians saw the pregnancies in awe, but they were also inhibited about the sexuality of the pregnant women.

There is a bold look on the face of The Snake Goddess.  She is proud of her role in the reproductive process and is willing to share it with the world.  However, the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth share a look of innocence and modesty.  Their demeanor is not bold, but timid.  The Virgin Mary is obviously young while Elizabeth is older with wrinkles and she is giving Mary advise.  The Snake Goddess does not show age so she represents women of all ages in motherhood.

            Every artistic period as well as every culture is interested in the fertility of women.  The Snake Goddess and Visitation is proof that even though these sculptures are over one thousand years apart and are different in the way the subjects are portrayed they are both celebrating the ability of a woman to reproduce.

Works Cited

Chapuis, Julien.  Gothic Art.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  10, May 2008.

http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/HD/mgot/hd_mgot.htm

Entrance to the Shrine of the Minoan Snake Goddess.  10, May 2008

http://inanna.virtualave.net/snakegoddess.html

High and Late Gothic Architecture in France. 10, May 2008.

http://www.flatcreekstudios.net/APAH%20Access/5%2008.htm

Witecombe, Christopher.  Minoan Snake Goddess.  Women of the Aegean.  10,

May 2008.  http://witcombe.sbc.edu/snakegoddess/snakecharmers.html