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(2023)           Pathosformeln
pathos                      formula

One image contains two concepts - the image itself and the icon. The icon is that the image is influenced by the environment in which it appears, e.g. religious doctrines, philosophical systems, cultural artifacts or scientific theories of the era, while at the same time the environment acts to shape the image. The image of the Madonna (Mother of Jesus) throughout

European history has a formulaic body shape that can be collected, organized, and described in a repeatable formula, which will summarize how the recurring body shape and gestures have been handed down and evolved, and how they frame the culture, customs, emotions, and lives of each generation hidden in the Madonna icon.



  • The tens of millions of religious artworks featuring the Madonna were divided into three periods: early, Renaissance, and modern. A random sample of 50 paintings was taken from each period.




  • Step 1. Separate Madonna individuals from their background; from religious art to Madonna's art.



Step 1. Separate Madonna individuals from their background; from religious art to Madonna's art.
  • Step 2. Remove Madonna's color, clothing, face and hands, reduce to only skeletons (cervical vertebrae, shoulder, upper arm, forearm and spine); from skin to skeletons.







  • Step 3. From skeletons to a form; integrate and overlap the skeletons of 50 samples from each period, 3 periods yielded 3 geometric patterns.

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  • Step 4. From a form to a formula; measure the angles of the geometry of each part of the skeleton, 3 periods yielded

  • 3 different formulas.















  • Result. It was found that the smallest values of geometric angles were found in the early period, indicating a low degree of skeletal variation among the 50 samples, which means that the form of the Madonna in early religious art was monolithic and conservative. As time progresses, the values of the angles increase until the modern infinite degrees, implying that the form of the Madonna is moving towards diversity and plurality. It can be said that the vector of Madonna's skeleton is the volume of a time, and the three formulas integrate not only the Madonna but also time.


















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