Red hair in the visions of Maria Valtorta

On this blog we have two articles about Catholic mystics Therese Neumann and Anne Catherine Emmerich who, in their visions, saw Jesus and other Biblical characters as having red/auburn hair.

I recently found out that another mystic, the Italian Maria Valtorta, had similar visions.

Maria Valtorta at age 15, 1912 

Maria Valtorta (14 March 1897 – 12 October 1961) was a Franciscan tertiary and a lay member of the Servants of Mary who lived much of her life bedridden in Viareggio, Tuscany.

She is best known for her 5,000 page book The Poem of the Man-God, first published in 1956 and later titled The Gospel as Revealed to Me. The book was mostly written from 1944-1947 and was later translated into many languages.

Valtorta was born in Caserta, just north of Naples. Her parents were from Lombady, northern Italy. Her father, Giuseppe, was in the Italian cavalry; her mother, Iside, was a teacher of French. Following her father’s regiment, the family moved first to Faenza and then to Milan. In 1913, after Giuseppe’s retirement, the family settled in Florence.

In 1917 Valtorta volunteered as a Samaritan nurse and for 18 months worked at a military hospital set up in Florence to care for the wounded soldiers who had returned from the war.

In 1918, at age 21, in the uniform of a Samaritan nurse, during the First World War

In March 1920, when she was 23 years old, Maria was walking on a street in Florence with her mother, when the young son of her mother's dressmaker struck her in the back with an iron bar and shouted a slogan against the wealthy and the bourgeoisie. As a result of that injury, she was confined to bed for a few months and although she seemed to have recovered, the complications from that incident eventually confined her to bed for 28 years, from April 1934 to the end of her life.

In October 1924, when Maria was 27 years old, the Valtorta family moved from Florence to the nearby city of Viareggio.

In 1942, Valtorta was visited by Romualdo Migliorini, then a priest of the Servants of Mary and later a bishop. He became her spiritual director and suggested she write her autobiography, which she completed in 1943.

After completing her autobiography, in Valtorta began writing a series of what she claimed were messages from Jesus. From 1943 to 1947 Valtorta wrote about 15,000 pages in her notebooks, 10,000 of which were later selected as the basis of her main book The Poem of the Man-God, and the rest were gradually organized and published after her death. Valtorta was initially reluctant to have any of her handwritten notes published, but in 1947 her priest convinced her to agree to their publication.

Maria Valtorta died in 1961, at age 64, and was buried in the town cemetery in Viareggio. Later, in 1973, her remains were moved to the chapel of the great cloister of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in Florence.

Valtorta's work has continued to remain controversial and various Biblical experts, historians and scientists support and criticize it to this day, and yearly conferences on the scientific and theological aspects of her writings are held in Italy. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) and Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi have written letters stating that the material in the book is just literary and has no supernatural origin.

Tomb of Maria Valtorta at the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata in Florence

Here are some excerpts from Valtorta’s notebooks.

29 December 1943 

Capelli più chiari nella Madre, più accesi nel Figlio, ma sempre d’un biondo tendente al color rame e ugualmente fini, morbidi e mossi in onde…

Hair fairer than his Mother’s, more vibrant in the Son, but always of a coppery blond, equally fine, soft and wavy...

7 April 1944 

Capelli divisi alla metà del capo e ricadenti in lunghe ciocche sino alle spalle. Ondulati per un buon palmo, poi terminanti in vero ricciolo. Lucidi, sottili, ben ravviati, di un colore biondo acceso che specie nel ricciolo finale ha decise tonalità di rame... Essa [la barba] è, dove è folta, di un color rame scuro: un biondo-rosso scuro. E così sono i baffi...

Hair parted in the middle and falling in long strands to the shoulders. Wavy for a good hand's breadth, ending in a true curl. Shiny, fine, well-styled, a bright blonde colour that, especially in the final curl, has bold copper tones… It [the beard] is, where it is thick, a dark copper colour: a dark red-blond. And the moustache is the same...

7 June 1944

… folte ciglia di un castano scintillante di biondo-rosso ... bei capelli lunghi e morbidi, dal biondo rosso più vivo nei punti in luce e più cupo nel fondo delle pieghe.

… thick lashes of a shimmering red-blond brown... beautiful long, soft hair, with a brighter red-blond in the highlights and darker at the bottom of the folds.

Bad Poetry and Good Art

I'm being a little bit unfair here, as the poem is talking about red hair being fashionable. It's from the publication Punch, Volumes 52-53, 1867. It's throwaway content, so I shouldn't be judging it by too high a standard ..but still, it's bad.

Fashionable Change Of Hair

ALL you, above whose heads have rolled

Some years of observation

In female fashions must behold

A wondrous alteration

Red hair, in scorn, our bygone age

Called "carrots," and did sneeze on;

But now it has become the rage,

And carrots are in season.

To brew a diabolic drench

When hags of old thought proper,

"Three ounces of a red-haired wench"

They threw into their copper.

For then, indeed, red hair was thought

A fault as rank as treason;

But now it is adored and sought;

For carrots are in season.

A dark peruke* then graced the head

Of rufous damsel, shaven,

Or else she turned her tresses red,

By dyeing them, to raven.

But raven now has had its day,

And womankind agrees on

Transmuting hair the other way;

Since carrots are in season.

To Nature is a maiden fair

For sable locks beholden?

She bleaches first, then stains, her hair,

And makes the black all golden.

And can that artificial hue

Be put, mankind to please, on?

Apparently with no such view;

But carrots are in season.

Of native gold beneath a thatch

Dwell many charming creatures

But counterfeit no art can match

With heterogeneous features.

The way of Woman is a way

Inscrutable by reason:

And therefore all that we can say

Is, "Carrots are in season."

Ye girls who pretty carrots boast,

(Well may you who possess them!)

Of your fine carrots make the most,

And mind you nicely dress them,

Regardless of the wretched pun

Which geese may make, with ease, on

Hair soup and Crecy both in one,

Now carrots are in season.

(*peruke means wig - another word I had to look up.)

I'm sorry for inflicting that on an audience. If you read the entire thing, well done. Your reward is some beautiful images that are much easier to imbibe. Both are from the English artist Evelyn De Morgan (1855 - 1919).

(Port After Stormy Seas)

(detail)

(The Prisoner)

(detail)

You are now free to go.

English proverbs about red hair

 

As you will see, some of the proverbs are basically the English version of others we already have. A couple of them are also in the post about Scotland, so, probably, they were just considered proverbs in English language, regardless of the country.

-  Faire and foolish, little and loud, long and lazie, blacke and proud, fat and merry, leane and sad, pale and peevish, red and bad 

(In some versions we have lusty for lazie and pettish for peevish)

- A red-headed man will make a good stallion

(I have no idea what this means)

 

- If thou meete a red man, and a bearded woman, greet them three myle off

- A red-haired man and bearded woman, salute them a hundred paces off

-  Beware of red men, of women that are bearded, and of such as God hath marked

- To a red man reade thy read. With a browne man breake thy bread

- With (To) a red man reede (reade) thy reed,

With a brown man break thy breade

At  a  pale  man  draw  thy  knife, 

From  a  black  man  keep  thy  wife

- The red is wise, the broun trusty, the pale envious, and the blacke lusty

- At a pale man draw thy knife. From a blacke man keep thy wife

- From a black man keep your wife. With the red man beware your knife

- In all places keepe thee well from redhaired men, from barded women, and from them that are marcked in the face

- A red beard and a black head. Catch him with a good trick, and take him dead

- He is false by nature that has a black head and a red beard

- I'll  neuer  trust  a  redhair'd  man  againe, 

If  I  should liue  a  hundred  yeares,  that's  flat; 

His  tume  cannot  be  serued  with  one  or  twain. 

And  how  can  any  woman  suffer  that ?

Sources: English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, English Folk-Rhymes

Tons of Italian proverbs about red hair (in dialect too!)

Russian proverbs about redheads and a decree from Peter the Great  

More ancient proverbs about red hair 

European proverbs about red hair  

Scottish proverbs

French proverbs 

Galician proverbs about red hair 

Hungarian proverbs about red hair

German proverbs about red hair

Serbian fairytale about one magical red hair

   

                   

                              THE WONDERFUL HAIR

Once upon a time there lived a man who was poor. And he had many children whom he could not keep, so that several times he had been on the point of killing them all in order not to see them die of hunger. And it was but due to the pleadings of his wife that he did not do it. 

Now one night, whilst he was asleep, a lovely child appeared to him and said, "Oh, man, I see you are about to sacrifice the salvation of your soul by killing your poor children. I know you are in great distress, and therefore I have come to help you. To-morrow morning early you shall find under your pillow a mirror, a red handkerchief, and an embroidered scarf. Take these three things, and without telling anyone go into the forest. There you will discover a river; walk along it till you come to its fountain-head, and there you will behold a maiden resplendent as the sun with Long hair flowing over her shoulders, but she wears no clothes, just as she was born. But beware, and do not speak a word, unless you want something evil to befall you, for at the first sound you utter she will bewitch you and turn you into a fish or something similar and eat you. If, however, she tells you to scratch her head gently, do not refuse, and then when you rummage through her hair and find one that is as red as blood, pull it out and hasten back with it; and if the maiden should notice it and begin to run after you, then let drop first the embroidered scarf, next the red handkerchief, and finally the mirror. Each time she will tarry a moment, and these delays will help you to escape. Try then to sell the hair to a rich man, and take care not to be defrauded, for the hair is of enormous value; you will be a rich man with the money you can get for it, and you will be able to keep your children."

When the poor man awoke in the morning he actually found everything under his pillow just as the child had told him in his dream. At once he set out and went into the forest. When he had discovered the river, he followed its course till he reached its fountain-head. 

Looking about there he beheld the maiden, who was sitting on the edge of the spring catching sun-beams, which she drew through a needle in order to embroider a cloth woven from the hair of heroes. As soon as she caught sight of him she rose and said, " Whence do you come, unknown hero?" But he answered nothing. So she asked him again, "Who are you, and why have you come here?" and many other questions. But he remained as dumb as a stone. Only with his hands he made signs that he was dumb, and had come for help. 

Then she told him that he was to sit down at her feet, and bending down her head, she asked him softly to scratch it. Without hesitation he did so, and eagerly searched for the red hair, and hardly had he found it, than he separated it carefully from the others, plucked it out, leaped up, and ran away with it as fast as his legs would carry him.

The maiden, noticing this, and not less swift than he, rushed after him, and soon was close on his heels, when, turning round, he saw she was fast overtaking him; so he threw down the embroidered carf as he had been told. When she beheld the scarf she stopped running, and commenced to examine it thoroughly and to admire the embroidery. Meanwhile the man gained again considerably. Then the maiden hid the scarf in her bosom and hastened after him. And when once more he saw himself almost overtaken, he threw down the red handkerchief, over which she tarried, gazing at it in admiration, so that the poor man succeeded in gaining further ground. Angry on perceiving this, the maiden now threw away scarf and handkerchief, and pursued him once more. Now being very much pressed, he threw down the mirror. The maiden had never seen a mirror in her life. So she picked it up, and beholding herself in it, she thought another being similar to herself was gazing at her, and whilst she was lost in the contemplation of it the man covered such a great distance that she would never have been able to overtake him. So she gave up the pursuit and returned home.

The poor man, however, well and cheerful, reached his house, showed the hair to his wife and children, and related all that had happened. His wife laughed and sneered at him on account of that red hair; however, he paid no attention to her, but went into the nearest town to sell the red hair.

Soon a number of curious people gathered around him, several merchants amongst them. One of them offered him a sovereign, another two sovereigns for it. Higher and still higher prices were offered until the bidding had risen to one hundred pounds. By that time the Tsar, too, had heard about it, and he ordered the man to be brought before him, and offered him a thousand pounds for the hair. At this price the man sold it to him. Now, what was the matter with this hair? The Tsar split it carefully into two, and found in it the records of many events worth knowing that had happened since the creation of the world.

Thus the man became rich, and henceforth with his wife and children he lived happily ever after. And the child that had appeared to him in a dream had been an angel sent by our Lord God, who wanted to help the poor man, and also because He chose that in this way the mysterious facts and wonderful deeds recorded within that hair should see the light of day, for these facts and deeds had never until then been revealed. 

Source

Lost in Illustration

I recently published an article on Substack, where I shared my all time favourite red-haired image: the Florence Harrison illustration that accompanied Christina Rossetti's poem Dream-Love. (In my original post about the image - way back in 2018 - I linked it to another Rossetti poem, the similarly titled Dream Land. I'm now fairly sure I was wrong, but I remain confused - see below).

https://cyprilocks.substack

Anyway, as I reinvestigated I came across a few more red-haired images ..and also a little bit of uncertainty over who Florence Harrison actually was. As it turns out there were two, and they often get mixed up. (In fact, back when I first posted I remember having difficultly finding information about the artworks.)

One is Florence Susan Harrison, an Australian artist - this is the Christina Rossetti illustrator, who produced the so-loved image we're discussing.

The other is an Emma Florence Harrison, an English artist, who, confusingly, also made art on similar themes - fairies and whatnot.

These two great articles explain it all:

https://www.jonkers.co.uk/blog/the-true-identity-of-florence-harrison

https://www.jonkers.co.uk/blog/the-other-florence-harrison

I also came across the following article that was a nice little read:

https://lobreaderservices.wordpress.com/2020/06/04/poetry-thursday-christina-rossetti/

On this page there's a book leaf image of the the illustration, and underneath is a line from the poem Dream-Love. So it must indeed have been that poem.

"Young Love lies drowsing"

Also, it's worth noting that the colouring of this image is a little different. The hair colours not quite as red.

This often happens when images are photographed, copied, edited, etc - and it can be hard to tell, especially when online, what colouring the true original had. So we often find different versions of a painting or illustration. Some with very red hair, others not so red. Obviously, here we have a bias towards the redder ones.

The Other Redhead Images

After all that I'll now share the other redhead images. (These are also from Florence Susan Harrison.) They're not quite as ethereal as the one above, but they have a flair, charm and wonder.

For closer inspection of the images see here:

https://www.jonkers.co.uk/rare-book/11308/in-the-fairy-ring/florence-harrison

N.B. Substack

Finally, a little note on the Substack. It's not replacing here as the main repository for thoughts and snippets. It's more a side project, where maybe we can present things in a slightly different style and reach a different audience. You could say it'll be more public-facing and this is where you'll see under the bonnet. Though, as ever, things tend to meander, as time takes its course.

Napoleon Tries To Mock A Redhead !

I came across the following little anecdote about Napoleon. I'll share it in full as it has a soap opera style charm to it. The mentioned Madame de Chevreuse making a star of herself in a single paragraph. It's from an 1845 work tilted The Fall of Napoleon: An Historical Memoir, by Lieut.-col. J. Mitchell.

"Nothing can better illustrate this statement than Napoleon's treatment of Madame de Chevreuse. This lady, one of the ladies of the palace - Dame du Palais - was young, lively, and handsome; and, as pretty women occasionally presume on such advantages, a little addicted to raillery. She had, however, very red hair; and the Emperor, wishing to punish her for some witty remark, and thinking that the obnoxious colour of her ringlets might be a sore point, called attention to it at a party, saying, "What shocking red hair you have, Madame de Chevreuse." The lady courtesied deeply, and answered with great quickness, - "I may very possibly have red hair, but your Majesty is the first gentleman who ever told me so." The speech was too good to escape attention, and Madame de Chevreuse was banished to the distance of forty leagues from Paris!"

I had to look up the word raillery. I thought it meant something else for a moment. Apparently it means to tease or engage in banter. From the French raillerie (fittingly), meaning mockery.

We've included Napoleon in our list of famous redheads before. If he's mocking a redhead so publicly his own can't have been that red (assuming the anecdote is true).

https://redheadsinhistory.blogspot.com/2018/07/359-napoleon-bonaparte.html

From the descriptions we've found it would appear he had hair of a dark reddish-blond or chestnut colour. So a borderline red it seems. I much prefer the Madame he tries to mock.

Red-haired Jesus in W. H. Hunt's paintings

 As you probably know, William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) was a Pre-Raphaelite painter, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that he represented Jesus with red hair (Hunt was also a redhead himself).

Self-portrait, 1867

Chronologically, the first painting with a red-haired Jesus is Christ and the Two Marys (oil on canvas, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide). Hunt began this painting aged 20, in 1847, but since he was then an atheist, he felt he could not complete it. He completed it 50 years later, in 1897. The painting shows a risen Christ in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea with two Marys. The Mary in dark green is prostrate, the other Mary, in pale pink, kneeling, hands in prayer. One is Mary Magdalene, the other either Mary Clopas or Mary Salome.

The other painting is The Light of the World. It represents the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door, illustrating Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me". The door in the painting has no handle, and can therefore be opened only from the inside, representing "the obstinately shut mind". The painting was considered by many to be the most important and culturally influential rendering of Christ of its time.

The are actually three versions of this work. The first is an oil on canvas, begun around 1849 or 1850 and completed in 1854. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854 and is now in the side chapel at Keble College, Oxford.

The Light of the World (Keble College version)

A second, smaller version of the work, painted by Hunt between 1851 and 1856, is on display at Manchester City Art Gallery, England. There are small differences between that and the first version, such as the angle of the gaze, and the drape of the corner of the red cloak. 

The Light of the World (Manchester version)

The fact that, at the time, Keble College charged a fee to view the picture, persuaded Hunt to paint a larger, life-sized, version toward the end of his life. He began it in about 1900 and finished in 1904. Shipowner and social reformer, Charles Booth, purchased the work and it was hung in St Paul's Cathedral, London. This third version diverges more from the original than the second one. 

The Light of the World (St Paul's Cathedral version)

Hunt painted Jesus in two more works, where, however, the hair colour looks more chestnut than red.

One is The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1854–1860), which represents the child Jesus debating the interpretation of the scripture with learned rabbis (Luke 2:41). Joseph's beard does have reddish shades, though. In an earlier version of this subject, by Albrecht Durer, Jesus has reddish-blond hair.

The second one is The Shadow of Death (1870 - 1873). It depicts Jesus as a young man prior to his ministry, working as a carpenter. He is shown stretching his arms after sawing wood. The shadow of his outstretched arms falls on a wooden spar on which carpentry tools hang, creating a "shadow of death" prefiguring the crucifixion.