Student researcher Cheynie Wray analyzes depictions of Jesus Christ as a savior, advocate, redeemer. . . and a mother.
Religious art has been around for more than 3,000 years. Artwork of Christ, specifically, has been around for about 1,800 years. This equates to tens of thousands—maybe even hundreds of thousands—of art pieces depicting Christ, most containing similar, reoccurring themes. So, when Cheynie Wray (Art History ’24) encountered an unusual portrayal of Christ in an illuminated manuscript, she immediately became interested in studying a largely overlooked topic in the art history world: medieval art and its depiction of a maternal-looking Christ. Wray decided to make it the focus of her HUM Grant research, in which she formed different interpretations of Christian imagery, researched their artistic elements, and came to better understand the theological meanings within medieval art.
Maternal Symbolism
During the fall 2022 semester, Wray sat in her northern European Renaissance art history class, staring at blown-up photos of the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, a Gothic illuminated manuscript made for daily prayer and devotion. As she observed the projected images and listened to Associate Professor Elliott Wise’s (Eucharistic and Liturgical Imagery) analysis of the artwork, a very odd detail struck her: one of the book’s spreads depicted Christ with a protruding stomach. “I couldn’t ignore the fact that Christ looked pregnant,” she says. “It was so obvious to me, and yet, no one seemed to be talking about it.”
I couldn’t ignore the fact that Christ looked pregnant. It was so obvious to me, and yet, no one seemed to be talking about it.
The art—with the left panel showing the betrayal of a pregnant-looking Christ and right portraying the Annunciation (Gabriel announcing Christ’s conception to Mary)—made a big enough impression on Wray that she made that unusual depiction of Christ the focus of that class’s final paper. But when she heard about the HUM Grant opportunity a year later, Wray started to envision a bigger, more comprehensive research project on the maternal depictions of Christ.
After securing the grant, Wray headed to New York City to examine the Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux manuscript in person, which is located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters. In her original research paper, Wray found several scriptural and historical accounts that supplemented her observation, so the purpose of this trip wasn’t only to see the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux in person but to also hunt for any other pertinent artwork to her research—which she found in the form of two ivory pieces.
Describing these two supplemental art pieces she found at the Met Cloisters, she says, “One of them shows two women at the Cross, catching the blood pouring from Christ's side wound. I related that to midwives who catch the baby in delivery or who clean up the blood that resides after childbirth.” With these new additions to her arsenal of evidence, Wray began to understand that the original depiction of Christ with a protruding stomach wasn’t just an accident or stylistic choice on the part of the artist—she’d discovered a recurring theme bigger than anything she’d originally thought.
Redefining Christ
Wray hypothesizes that these portrayals of Christ intentionally depicted Him not only as a mother but as the mother of the Christian faith. Following her return to Provo and several meetings with Wise—her faculty mentor for this project—Wray worked to condense her previously 10-page paper into something more refined, while also including her new findings. She says, “It was a really good learning experience for me, learning how to condense paper I'd already written and adding new things.” Pulling from sources she had used for her original paper as well as newer evidence, Wray argued that Christ’s repetitive portrayal as a mother centers around the idea of Him birthing the church and, as a result of the Atonement, birthing God’s sinless children.
Artistic symbols, too, point to this conclusion of Christ as a maternal figure: swollen stomachs, protective stances, and imagery associated with childbirth and motherhood. Wray explains that, in the betrayal of Christ scene where he appears pregnant, “Christ is [also] protecting his Apostles from the mob, using his body as a shield in a motherly stance." Additionally, in the original artwork Wray examined, the art pairs scenes of Christ’s suffering with the Annunciation, suggesting a connection between Christ and the inherent motherly nature of Mary. In her paper, Wray says, “Mothers, too, bear the weight of their children, are heavy-laden, and travail in pain, laboring to deliver their children. But instead of delivering a child, Christ delivers the children of God from sin.”
To watch Wray’s presentation of her paper at the annual BYU Humanities Student Symposium, click here. And to learn more about HUM Grants, click here.