The Purple Triangle and Blue Madonnas: The Virgin Mary

Abstract

This chapter examines Woolf’s appreciation of the complex role played by the Virgin Mary in Western cultures, particularly as she has been represented in art from the Renaissance to the modernist era. The chapter shows that Woolf was deeply critical of the way in which society has used the Virgin Mary as an impossible role-model for women, but also interested in ways in which Mary can be regarded as an empowering figure. The chapter focuses particularly on Woolf’s allusions to the figure of the Madonna in Renaissance religious art in To the Lighthouse and The Waves, and also considers her encounters with ritual and art on her visits to Italy.