Vittoria Colonna and the Virgin Mary

Modern Language Review, The, Jan, 2001 by Abigail Brundin

The opening sonnet of the collection, 'Vergine pura, che dai raggi ardenti', is strikingly significant. It is a plea to the Virgin Mary in the manner of Petrarch's famous culminating canzone, CCCLXVI, and had already been widely diffused in the seven editions of Colonna's Rime published from 1538 (although in none of these published editions is it the opening sonnet). Despite being well known, however, its appeal here is very specific, corresponding precisely to the issue raised in the exchange of letters between Colonna and Navarre: that is, the interest in a need for female role models to which Colonna testifies. Such models were to be sought both in society and also within the religious traditions that played a major part in structuring the lives of these women. By opening the sonnet sequence in this vein, the poet has essentially stated that her preoccupation is with the particular concerns and difficulties of a woman approaching the Catholic faith and attempting to locate herself within it.

The positing of the Virgin as a model is of course far from straightforward. Marina Warner, in her comprehensive study of the cult of the Virgin from its earliest beginnings, points to the dual nature of Mary's status. On the one hand she is able to guide women by her example, yet at the same time her influence is built on the foundations of a fear of the evils of the flesh, and returns to the age-old connection between women, flesh and sin stemming from Eve. (9) In a striking number of sonnets included in this manuscript, Mary's role as mother and nourisher of Christ is celebrated, and yet the glaring paradox remains that she was nonetheless a virgin, free from any taint of the evils of bodily appetites. However, Renaissance 'defences of women' appear generally able to co-opt the figure of the Virgin as a model to which all women may aspire, ignoring her very particular de-sexualised nature, and Colonna herself, lacking any experience of motherhood, may well have been drawn to consider the perfection of Mary's motherhood in abstract idealized terms, ignoring the inherent inconsistencies, and aspiring instead to her potential for strength and self-determination. Such paradoxical logic lies, of course, at the heart of Christian teaching.

The opening sonnet thus establishes the poet's female concerns and aspirations, in her expression of envy of the Virgin who is able to maintain a variety of relationships with Christ, as disciple, mother, wife and daughter: 'Immortal Dio nascosto in human velo | L'adorasti Signor, figlio 'l nodristi, | L'amasti sposo, e L'onorasti Padre.' (10) The breadth and variety of Mary's roles is significant: she is able to serve Christ in four contrasting ways. So, by extension, the woman who is searching for a spiritual model is not limited in her choice, but can herself worship and know Christ in a variety of ways. The emphasis on the potential for choice and change in her self-definition is not a new one in Colonna's poetry. In the poetic 'Epistola' addressed to her husband during his lifetime, and the only work extant from this early period of her life (first published, however, ten years after the death of d'Avalos in 1536), the young Colonna underlines the four contrasting roles she plays, illustrated by the four ways in which she is forced to suffer as she awaits the release from prison of the male members of her family, captured in battle: