Virgin presents Colette of Corbie with dismembered baby on a platter. Rare.
[Colette of Corbie] / Michiel Cabbaey. S. Coleta badt de H. Maghet Maria voor de sondaers welck toonende een cleÿn kindt ghekapt in stucke seÿde dat de sondaers noch ergher deden met haer ghebenedÿden soone, het welck Coleta bedroefde. S.l. [Antwerp], M. Cabbaey, s.a. [c. 1680-1722]. [9.1 x 6.1 cm], [1] f. engraving, with contemporary hand-color. Minor toning, trimmed inside the platemark, minor staining, remnants of mounting on verso.
Very rare (1 copy worldwide: Museum Catharijneconvent) devotional engraving—here decorated with vibrant contemporary hand-color—depicting Colette of Corbie (1381-1447), reformer of the Franciscan Order of St. Clare, experiencing a vision in which the Virgin Mary presents her with the dismembered Christ Child on a platter.
The print, signed in the plate by the Antwerp artist Michiel Cabbaey (1660-1722), is of such unusual subject matter that it gives the impression of being just one episode from a series of events in the life of Colette, but this is not the case: It is a stand-alone subject, and indeed is one of only two episodes of Colettine iconography to become established in early modern print culture (along with her “Vision of the Trees”).
The print is captioned with a Dutch inscription that might be translated as “St. Coleta prayed for sinners to the Holy Virgin Mary, who, displaying a small child cut to pieces, said that sinners did even worse with her dead son, which saddened Coleta.”
The episode, from the Vita of Colette written in French by her confessor Pierre de Vaux (a.k.a., Pierre de Reims) in 1450, reads as follows:
“One time with great devotion and fervor she asked the Virgin Mary to intercede with her Dear Child to please have pity and compassion for her poor people. During this prayer, there was presented a beautiful dish filled with small pieces of flesh, like those of an innocent child; She [Mary] had this response: ‘How can I intercede with my child for those who, speaking disgusting sins and offenses against him, tear him to pieces every day, into smaller pieces than are in this dish of cut and dismembered flesh? These offenses she imprinted on her Heart for a long time in great sadness and pain.” (Vie de soeur Colette, E. Lopez, ed., p. 91)
(“Une fois, elle priait avec beaucoup de devotion et de ferveur la Vierge Marie, d’intercéder auprès de son cher enfant, qu’il lui plaise d’avoir pitié et compassion e son pauvre peuple. A cours de cette prière, il lui fut présenté un beau plat rempli de petits morceaux de chair, comme ceux d’un enfant innocent; elle eut cette réponse: ‘Comment intercéder auprès de mon enfant pour ceux qui, parles répugnants péchês et offenses contre lui, le mettent en pièce tous les jours, en morceaux plus petits, que n’est dans ce plat la chair découpée et dépecée?’ Ces offenses, elle les imprima longtemps dans son coeur en grande tristesse et douleur.”)
Caroline Walker Bynum remarks of this episode that “Colette saw a vision of the Christ child on a dish, carved up like a piece of meat; afterwards, as she brooded over the horrifying vision, she knew that it represented Christ’s reparation for our sins. Imitating this macerated flesh in her own body, she beat and starved herself and sometimes briefly displayed on her body the marks of Christ’s passion” (Holy Feast and Holy Fast, p. 139).
The subject is not, as far as I know, treated in the early illuminated manuscripts of Colette of Corbie’s Life. Similar devotional engraving by Franciscus Huberti (a.k.a., Franciscus Huybrechts, 1630-87) and Cornelis de Boudt (fl., 1687-1730) are known.
The only other copy of the present Michiel Cabbaey engraving that I have been able to trace is held by the Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht.
* J. Mueller & N. B. Warren, eds., Companion to Colette of Corbie; U. d’Alençon, Les vies de Ste Colette Boylet de Corbie, réformatrice des Frères mineurs et des Clarisses, 1381-1447, écrites par ses contemporains; U. d’Alençon, Miniatures et documents artistiques du Moyen Age relatifs à sainte Colette de Corbie; E. Lopez, Colette of Corbie (1381-1447): Learning and Holiness, J. Waller, trans., E. Saggau, ed.; E. Lopez, Culture et sainteté: Colette de Corbie, 1381-1447; Pierre de Vaux & Sister Perrine de Baume, R. Blumenfeld-Kosinski, ed. and trans., Two lives of Saint Colette: With a selection of letters by, to, and about Colette; C. van Corstanje, Y. Cazaux, et al., Vita Sanctae Coletae, 1381-1447: The Miniatures of the Manuscript Belonging to the Convent of the Colettine Poor Clares in Ghent; Pierre de Vaux, Vie de soeur Colette, E. Lopez, ed. ; Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women.