Why is the BVM always in blue?

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Chuck1

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Hi I was wondering can anyone tell me why the virgin Mary is always seems to be dressed in blue (especially in the nativity ) ?
Thanks chuck
Merry Christmas !
 
It seems to be Her favorite color. Our Lady of Fatima wears white & gold. OL Mt. Carmel wears brown. But She is shown in blue a lot. Maybe it’s our favorite color.
 
Chuck1 said:
Hi I was wondering can anyone tell me why the virgin Mary is always seems to be dressed in blue (especially in the nativity ) ?
Thanks chuck
Merry Christmas !
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So that the people who are viewing the image know who is being represented.

Mary is always dressed in blue for much the same reason that saints are always pictured with halos or specific saints are always shown in specific ways- like St. Bartholomew with a flaying knife.

If they weren’t, the viewer might misidentify the individual.
 
svid2 said:
It seems to be Her favorite color. Our Lady of Fatima wears white & gold. OL Mt. Carmel wears brown. But She is shown in blue a lot. Maybe it’s our favorite color.
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That’s a lovely sentiment, but I’m not sure it has anything to do with reality. Iconography is highly symbolic, and even after Western art drifted into a more expressive form, much of the symbolism was retained. As was mentioned elsewhere, blue was the symbolic representation of the sky, purity, holiness. At some point this was replaced by white (previously a joyous colour used to celebrate resurrection) in popular conception, but not in iconography.
 
I learned about this when a priest had a talk about iconography. The reason the Virgin Mary was always represented in blue in icons is very simply. The red dye used to make the icons is extremely expensive at the time. So they reserve it only for the most important ones to be put on icons and other paintings. So its Jesus Christ who wore red always in iconography. And the Emperor in secular paintings. Blue was next on the list of expensive colors, thus it was used on the Theotokos.
 
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