The image of the "Arab Madonna" knocks you to your knees. Not majesty, but beauty and love that emanate from Mary looking at the sleeping Jesus.
Iadmit without beating that for as long as I can remember, it has been difficult for me to admire the images of Mary . Among all the good emotions that accompanied me when I climbed Jasna Góra together with pilgrims on foot or knelt before Mary in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, there was not an ounce of admiration for the beauty of the miraculous image itself.
At the beginning of December 2017, however, I saw a picture of Mary with the Child, which simply turned my head. This is the "Arab Madonna". The work of the French painter Albert Louis Aublet is in the Diocesan Museum in Płock .
"Madonna Arabska"
The painting is known under two titles: "The Arabian Madonna" or " The Child's Dream in the Desert ". It was painted at the end of the 19th century, in 1898. It is the most beautiful Marian image I have ever seen. I can look at him for hours.
Mary is dressed in garments often seen in North Africa and the Middle East at the end of the Belle Epoque. He wears a dark, long, loose robe. A blue turban covers her head.
He kneels over the Infant Jesus lying supine on the ground , shielding Him from the scorching sun of the desert. The boy sleeps wrapped in a sheet, with his arms outstretched, so that the arrangement of his delicate body resembles a cross.
Although we associate the image of Mary with the Child with Christmas, we see that the incarnation of the Son of God is closely related to his Passover , i.e. passion, death and resurrection.
God became man so that we might be included in his divine life. This is more or less the golden rule of the Fathers of the Church, already attributed to St. Ireneusz. On his canvas, Aublet reminds us that this salvific process is not limited only to Easter, but the entire earthly life of Jesus has a sanctifying meaning for our everyday life.
View of the Arabian Madonna
But what impresses me the most about this painting is Mary's gaze. On Her dazzlingly beautiful face you can see something that every parent who looks at their sleeping child will understand - it's pure delight that has its source in love. Little Jesus doesn't have to do anything to deserve this love . At the same time, Mary and Jesus are so natural in Aublet's painting, there is no trace of pathos or artificiality...
If we see in Mary's face the depth with which she loves her Child, and we realize that under the cross Mary also became our mother, then we can only try with great joy to return her gaze.
