The Virgin's restrained grief while standing beside the cross was the usual pose found in early medieval Italian art (fig.1), and follows the text of St John's gospel [19:25]:
'Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother...'
However, by the mid-12th century, influenced by Byzantine images, she was sometimes shown in a state of collapse. This ranged from the Virgin still standing although supported by St John and her companions, to an image prevalent in the 14th and 15th centuries where she had collapsed to the ground (fig 2). Although there was no biblical reference to it, the Virgin's swoon developed out of the devotional practices of the 12th century onwards, which encouraged a compassionate response to the suffering of both Christ and the Virgin at the time of the crucifixion. The care shown to Mary by her companions and St John could be seen as a model for the viewer when confronted in the contemporary world by those in sorrow or distress.
Theological concern that the 'swoon' might show a lack of perfection in the Virgin Mary, and criticism from certain scholars against non-scriptural expressions of emotion, led to this motif being condemned by the Church in the 16th century. The Virgin's swoon has recently been linked with the medieval concept of her suffering from childbirth labour on Calvary.
