Catholic Iconography

Paper Doll Madonnas (2014, Cassein Paintings)

While watching a procession of the Madonna in my Brooklyn neighborhood, I wondered about her black velvet robe. Do they use that same robe on other statues?

The question brought me back to my childhood playing with paper dolls, moving the dresses around. I thought of all the paintings I have seen in Renaissance art. Mary wears the most beautiful sumptuous silks and brocades. Was the Madonna a fashion icon?

I had just returned from Siena where I had studied and mixed egg tempera and casein paints, materials the early Renaissance artists used to paint on wooden panels before oil paint was discovered.

A light bulb moment, I would pick out the most over the top garments worn by Mary and painted by the greatest artists of the 12th and 13th centuries, mix my own casein paint, buy panels and do a series of paper doll Madonnas.